Don't Leave Me
by YungVodkaDikost
Summary: It was just supposed to be a simple mission. Get the info and get out. But nothing ever goes as planned. Deidara really didn't expect to become someone's big brother out of the ordeal. Will he be able to save the child that has latched herself to him? Or is she too far gone to be saved? Warning; mentions of child abuse, sexual assault, drug abuse, and so on. Rating may change.
1. The Child and The Savior

**Alright, I'm probably setting myself up for disaster here but I really don't care. I couldn't wait to post this story. I really couldn't. I might regret this later considering I have two other stories I'm writing at the moment but oh well, soon enough I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands so this'll keep my brain occupied.**

 **Anyways!**

 **I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **Please leave a review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed.**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper.**

* * *

The blond ninja drew a frustrated hand through his sweat dampened hair. He had been sent on a solo mission by Leader to do a little spying on a remote village near Iwagakure. He knew in the back of his mind that Leader had ordered him to return so close to his old village just to piss him off, but he held his tongue and didn't argue. Orders were orders, you didn't get a choice in the missions you took. If you were given a mission, you did it without question and sucked it up. It didn't stop it from sucking though.

As Deidara slowly made his way towards the village he was supposed to be scouting out, mind wandering to prototypes for new explosives that he was still yet to finish swimming through his head. He almost wished Sasori was with him just so he would have someone to argue with, he let out a sigh. It sucked not having anybody to talk to, whether it was just arguing or not. The blond just liked to talk, it wasn't just because he like the sound of his own voice, he was just a talkative guy. And he did kind of enjoy the sound of his own voice, we all have our niches, right? The blond continued down his path to the village, he had been given strict instructions not to use his bird to travel to the village, he wasn't to draw any attention to himself before he had finished his search. Once his mission to gather information was complete, he could fly to his hearts content and rest his aching feet.

About an hour later, the village came into view. As Deidara drew closer to the village that was the object of his mission, he could hear shouts and screaming from a distance but ignored it. He wasn't here to stop arguing couples from fighting or protect any kids from being punished for stealing. None of that was remotely his problem. He quickly made his way through the gates of the village, nobody even bothered to question what he was doing in their little village once they caught a glimpse of his cloak. It was rare for a village not to know who the Akatsuki were, which kind of came in handy. But it had its downfalls too, but oh well. Life went on. It was about as good as any missing nin could get in this day and age. The work wasn't always the most pleasant and having to take orders from a ginger with a God Complex did get kind of tiring, but it was better than constantly being on the run from just about everything. Deidara had lived as the mouse in a deadly game of cat before and he refused to be forced to run and hide ever again. At least being a member of a well-known organization like the Akatsuki had a few bonuses.

Deidara found his way to the tavern he was supposed to be getting this so called useful information from and grimaced as the smell of pure filth filled his nose. He pushed the stench that was currently assaulting his senses out of his mind and made his way towards the counter, ringing the little bell the laid there, signally that he needed assistance. He heard something rustle in, what he assumed, was probably the back room. He heard a muffled cry and a man giving who ever had cried out a sharp order to shut their mouths before they paid dearly. Deidara heard something hard thud against an unforgiving floor before he shook his head and tried to ignore whatever the the person in the back was doing. What went on in this town was still not his problem and he wasn't in any hurry to make it his business. He just wanted to get the damn information and leave this disgusting excuse for a village. When the man he had heard talking just before round the corner to go to the counter, Deidara raised an eyebrow in question before taking in the mans less than appealing appearance. The man had to be in his mid to late forties with greasy slicked back graying hair. Deidara resisted the urge to cringe in disgust at the smell of filth and body odor radiating off the man in waves. His suit was as greasy as his hair, the blond missing nin guessed that the suit had once been white and pristine. Instead of its grungy brown color that it now held. He raised his eyebrow in question once more at the man when he didn't answer the blonds questioning stare the first time.

"No need to worry about that, sir. Just a useless rat needing to be punished.", the tavern owner assured before glancing at the cloak the man before him adorned.

"I'm here for the information that was promised.", he recited calmly, getting straight to the point, trying his hardest to ignore the small moans of pain he could hear from the back room.

 _'Leave it alone, un. Focus on your mission!'_ , he mentally berated himself.

The tavern owner nodded before reaching underneath the counter and drew out a small stack of papers, handing them to the blond after making sure it was the correct stack.

"It's all there.", the man stated, gesturing to the stack in the blonds hand.

Deidara nodded and turned his back to exit the tavern when he turned and saw that the man was gone as quickly as he had came. Just as he was about the shrug off the mans behavior, he heard a sharp crack and a pained scream coming from the back room once again. Frowning, Deidara went against his better judgement and made his way back towards the counter and stepped behind it. Now he was curious, just what was that man doing to the person in there? Though he had defected from his village, he wasn't a heartless monster. He rounded the corner only to have the stack of papers in his hand fall to the ground.

There on the dirty ground laid a girl no older than seven years old. The tavern man was mere inches away from bringing the piece of wood in his hand down on the girl again before Deidara snapped his hand out and grabbed the mans wrist. The man tensed his body and turned his head only to shudder in fear as his eyes met the blonds. Anger seemed to radiate off of the missing nin in waves. Deidara knew he shouldn't be getting involved in whatever it was that this disgusting man was doing but the blond didn't exactly condone beating on a helpless child. The fact that the child on the floor was making no move to move away from either male concerned him greatly. He offhandedly wondered if it was because the child couldn't walk or if the bones in her legs were damaged. He made a quick mental note to check her out once he was done with the filth he was currently restraining.

"The fuck to you think you're doing, yeah?", he asked harshly, tightening his grip on the tavern owners wrist. The man cried out in pain as the bones in his wrists shifted and cracked but Deidara didn't loosen his hold, he just tightened it further until his knuckles turned stark white due to the amount of pressure he was applying.

"She's just a freaky little rat that needs to be punished for her sins!", the man cried out in pain, trying in vain to break free from the blond ninjas hold on his wrist. The blond didn't even budge at his efforts.

"So beating a mere child within mere inches of her life is your version of justice? What's her crime, yeah?", the blond snarled. He glanced over at the little girl on the floor, noticing she hadn't said a word or made a sound since he had entered the room. He saw that she was still breathing, he let out a small sigh of relief, though he was still a little concerned about the fact that she _hadn't_ moved away. He decided to finish this quick and get the kid out of there right away.

"Being born with those sinful things on her hands!", the man cried out.

"What things on her hands, yeah?", Deidara asked with a raised eyebrow, thinking back to his bloodline limit on his palms.

"Look for yourself!", was the answering screech.

Deidara rolled his eyes at the mans screeching before drawing out a kunai with his free hand. He had heard enough and the mans screaming was really starting to make his head hurt. He turned his body so it was standing in front of the girl, shielding her from the sight of the man. Once he was satisfied that the man was out of her sight, with one quick flick of his wrist, he slit the mans throat cleanly. He dropped the man from his grasp and turned to face the girl on the floor, dropping himself to his knees in front of her. She didn't even flinch when the sound of the mans body hit the floor, nor did she flinch when he lowered himself to the dirty floor in front of her.

"You alright, yeah?", he asked.

All he received was a pained whimper.

Deidara frowned and without a second thought he scooped the little girl up into his arms. His frown deepened when he felt her body tense in his arms but she made no move to try to wiggle free from his grasp. With a free hand he grabbed the papers he had dropped a few moments before. Once he was sure she wasn't going to try to squirm free from him, he raised himself back to his feet, being mindful to the fact that there was a good chance that she could possibly have broken bones. With a sigh and one last look at the dead man on the floor, the blond carried the little girl out of the tavern and made his way towards the village's exit. The walk to the gates was done so in silence, he was more focused on trying not the jostle the little girl being held in one arm.

When he reached the exit to the village he was stopped by the villagers at the front gate.

"Where are you taking that child?", they asked.

"Away from this disgusting village.", the blond growled before resuming his pursuit of the forest ahead of him.

The villagers didn't try to stop him and watched his retreating figure disappear within the tree line.

Once they were a safe distance away, Deidara tucked the little girl more firmly against his cloak before uttering a single word under his breath.

 _'Katsu!'_

To his surprise, the little girl didn't even flinch when the sounds of her home being blown to bits reached her ears. He swore he almost heard a sigh of relief. He allowed a small smile to grace his lips before continuing onward towards their next destination.

* * *

Once they were a safe distance away from the village, Deidara looked down at the child sleeping soundly in her arms. He hadn't even noticed that she had fallen asleep until he'd looked at her, he supposed that she was already so quiet that it was pretty easy not to notice. He let out a small sigh when he took a better look at the state of the small child he was cradling in his arm. She was dirty, really dirty. Dirt and grime seemed to coat her skin in layers so thick that he couldn't even tell what color her real skin tone was, or what color her hair really was. She was thin, way too thin to be healthy. In short, the girl was completely emaciated. Deidara still didn't know what had compelled him to come to the small girls aid and was still curious as to what the tavern owner had been talking about when he mentioned something on her hands. Her hands were so thick with grime that he knew he wouldn't be able to look at whatever it was until she had been cleaned up. With that in mind, he made his way in the direction of a lake he remembered he had passed on his way to the village.

About a half an hour later, he felt the little girl stir in his arms. He slowed his walk and came to a halt when he felt eyes on him. He looked down and his single visible blue eye locked with two frightened jade green eyes. He tried his best to smile at her but he was sure it turned out to be more of a frown than anything. She looked at him pleadingly, almost as if to beg him not to hurt her. If he wasn't frowning before, he was sure that he was now.

"Don't worry, yeah. I won't hurt you. Let's get you cleaned up, yeah?", he said calmly, hoping to at least calm some of her fears. He received a small nod and began to walk once again after feeling her body relax once again in his arms.

After another ten minutes of walking, the lake he remembered came into sight. He stopped at the rivers edge and lowered himself to his knees to gently set the girl down on the grass in front of the waters edge, still being mindful that she could be injured.

"Can you undress yourself, yeah?", Deidara asked. He really hoped she would nod or at least tell him she could manage. The last thing he wanted to be mistaken as was a pervert. A child pervert at that. He almost sighed in relief when he saw her starting to remove the scrap of fabric covering her body but stopped when he saw a harsh flinch make its way through her body when she started to raise her arms above her head. He let out a sigh and grabbed the material from her, eyes closed, and lifted it off of her.

"I'll just give you a little privacy, yeah.", he stated before turning his back before opening his eyes.

He was about to relax when he felt a small tug on the sleeve his cloak and turned his head to regard the little girl. His eyes softened when he saw the lost look on her face. With another sigh he nodded and rose to his feet, discarding his long cloak and shoes before rolling up with black pants to his knees. He gestured for her to step into the water and waded in after her. He couldn't help but feel a small amount of relief at the fact that she was at least able to walk and that it didn't seem like she had any broken bones. Needless to say, it was a bit shocking that she wasn't sporting any broken bones. Especially after the scene that he had been about to witness back at that godforsaken tavern. With a small sigh, he set to work on cleaning up the small child that was watching him with timid eyes. He started with her hair first, he cupped water into his hands and let it wash over her grime slicked hair. He tried not to frown in disgust as the water left her body and hair in murky black streams. As more and more grime was washed from her hair and body, he found the color of her hair was a bright pink color, almost like a bubble gum like color. It wasn't what he was expecting in the least. Pink wasn't exactly the most common hair color. Especially out here in the middle of nowhere.

The next thing he noticed were the bruises that seemed to stretch across her body, as if her body was nothing but one gigantic bruise. His hands smoothed over the damaged flesh as gently as he could as he scrubbed the grime from her body. One thing he noticed was that he didn't actually mind having to help the little pink haired child, but not in a creepy way. It almost felt brotherly to him. He'd been an only child after all so sibling bonds were lost on him. He silently wondered if this was what it felt like.

Once he was satisfied that he had gotten her as clean as he could, he helped her out of the stream and quickly draped his way-too-large cloak over her tiny frame. There was no way in hell he was letting her put on the disgusting piece of fabric again. She slowly lowered herself to the ground and looked down at her hands and smiled at them before closing them into tight little fists and looked back up at the man who had saved her.

"So, kiddo, what's on your hands, yeah? The tavern owner seemed pretty spooked by whatever is on them, yeah."

The little girl froze and looked at him wide eyed, he could tell that she was hoping that he had forgotten.

"Oh come on, yeah. I've got stuff on my hands too, I'll show you what's on mine if you show me what's on yours, yeah.", he tried to bargain.

She seemed to think it over in her head before she gave a little nod and scooted a little closer to Deidara. She looked down at her lap and raised one of her hands out towards the blond man next to her. She unfurled her fingers and snapped her head back up at him when she heard him gasp in surprise.

Little mouths. She had little mouths on her hands. Just like he did.

The little girl looked at the blond with confusion etched on her fingers.

"Well I wasn't expecting that, yeah. Looks like we're the same, eh?", he smiled, showing her his own hand mouths.

The little girls eyes widened, she had never seen someone with the same ailment as she did.

"Looks like you're from the same clan as me, yeah. What's your name, yeah?", he asked, not really expecting her to answer.

But she surprised him for the second time in two minutes.

"Sakura."

* * *

 **Well there's the first chapter to this. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Along with my other stories Clash and Heartbroken, I will be updating this as often as I can.**

 **Sadly I am moving this Saturday on the tenth so my updates might be a little more sporadic than I'm used to. Seeing as I will be without wifi. Sad face! But, I'm more than willing to type up the chapters on the computer and transfer the files to my mobile and update my stories that way. It's a pain in the ass but I'm willing to do it!**

 **Please leave a review, favorite, and follow if you enjoyed!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	2. New Home?

**And I'm back. This will probably be the last update I do for a little bit before my move on Saturday, I will still be writing chapters for all of my stories but I won't be posting as frequently as I normally do. Gotta do everything on my phone, ya know? Takes a bit longer that way, especially when staring at the screen long enough gives me a damn headache! Oh well, it's worth it as long as I can still write my stories, which I enjoy writing, thank you very much.!**

 **Now that this chapter is done, I'm hoping I will be able to finish the next chapter of Clash before my move. If I could get it done tonight that would be even better but I'm not going to get my hopes up.**

 **Wish me luck!**

 **Anyway!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **Please leave a review, follow, and favorite if you enjoyed. It'll inspire me to write quicker!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

* * *

 _Previously;_

 _So, kiddo, what's on your hands, yeah? The tavern owner seemed pretty spooked by whatever is on them, yeah."_

 _The little girl froze and looked at him wide eyed, he could tell that she was hoping that he had forgotten._

 _"Oh come on, yeah. I've got stuff on my hands too, I'll show you what's on mine if you show me what's on yours, yeah.", he tried to bargain._

 _She seemed to think it over in her head before she gave a little nod and scooted a little closer to Deidara. She looked down at her lap and raised one of her hands out towards the blond man next to her. She unfurled her fingers and snapped her head back up at him when she heard him gasp in surprise._

 _Little mouths. She had little mouths on her hands. Just like he did._

 _The little girl looked at the blond with confusion etched on her fingers._

 _"Well I wasn't expecting that, yeah. Looks like we're the same, eh?", he smiled, showing her his own hand mouths._

 _The little girls eyes widened, she had never seen someone with the same ailment as she did._

 _"Looks like you're from the same clan as me, yeah. What's your name, yeah?", he asked, not really expecting her to answer._

 _But she surprised him for the second time in two minutes._

 _"Sakura."_

* * *

Deidara shot the pink haired child; Sakura, a small smile. At least she was speaking to him, for now at least. Her voice sounded hoarse to his ears, probably from not speaking for a long period of time. Or maybe from her shrieks of pain at the hands of the disgusting village he had taken her from. He preferred to think that the former was the case at the moment. He didn't think he could handle it if he were do discover what else had been done to the small child wrapped in his cloak. He really needed to find her something to wear that wasn't his cloak, because again, there was no way in hell that he would allow her to put that vile piece of fabric back on her body. God only knew what kind of filth was crawling all over the thing. He'd just have to swipe her some clothes form the next village they visited, until then she'd just have to swim in his cloak.

"Nice to meet you, Sakura. Name's Deidara, yeah.", he chirped, smiling a little when he saw the tiniest of smiles grace her newly washed face.

"Thank you for saving me, Dei-kun.", she whispered, burrowing herself deeper into her borrowed cloak. She dearly hoped that she hadn't overstepped any boundaries by referring to him in such a familiar manner. She didn't know what it was about the blond man sitting next to her, but she felt as though she could trust him. That he wasn't going to harm her. Wasn't going to abuse her. Wasn't going to try to beat the sin that she had been told she was born with out of her. For the first time in her short life, she felt safe, and she was going to revel in it as long as she could. She just hoped it wouldn't end as soon as it had started.

Deidara smiled at her little nickname for him. He thought the small child was pretty bold for calling something with such familiarity. Not that he minded, he found it, dare he say, cute. Now that he thought about it, he had no idea what he was going to do with the helpless kid. He could tell that she had spunk, even if she was too shy at the moment to truly show it. And with the bloodline limit gracing her hands, she could become quite the powerful ninja. With the proper training of course. The only problem was was that he didn't know if Leader would allow him to keep the child at his side. Even though he had only known the child for a number of hours, he had grown quite fond of her. Even if all they'd really done was introduce themselves and give her a bath. And discover that they shared the same bloodline limit of course. He'd have to contact Leader after she fell asleep for the night and discuss what had occurred on his mission. He truly did hope that Leader wouldn't force him to abandon or destroy the child. Especially when he had just saved her from such a horrific situation, even if he didn't know the extent of what Sakura had endured in that village. And part of him didn't want to know. But the other part wanted to know just what had happened to the small child.

Sakura was shocked to say the least, she had more than expected the blond to strike her for calling him anything but Master or his full name. When he smiled at her, she couldn't help but allow another small smile to form. She couldn't help but wonder just what made him want to help her, make him kill that horrible man, and take her out of the village. Her mind wandered back to the explosion she suspected her was behind that she had heard shortly after they exited the villages gates. She figured he had to be a ninja. No normal man carried around the weapons he had used to kill the tavern owner. And no normal man could cause an explosion. She'd have to ask him about what he had done, if he had done it, when she felt more comfortable with questioning him. For now she would just do as she was told and hope to any holy deity that he didn't abandon her.

"Say, Sakura-chan, I know you're probably hungry but I don't have anything on me right now, yeah. We're going to be passing through another village in the morning so we'll stop then and get a bite and some clothes for you. Sound good, yeah?", Deidara asked quietly, trying not to spook the small girl since she seemed lost in her own thoughts.

"Okay", she whispered. Yes, she was starving, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd had a decent meal. Or anything to eat for that matter. But she refused to tell him that. He said they would eat tomorrow and that was how it was. She wasn't going to argue, she'd just be patient.

"Why don't you get some sleep, yeah. I gotta contact my boss and tell him about you and my mission.", Deidara suggested, absently plucking the small blades of grass by his hands.

Sakura nodded and began to curl up in the cloak the blond had given her. She was about to shut her eyes and allow herself to drift when she felt two strong arms wrap around her and place her gently on their lap. She peaked up at Deidara and silently asked him what he was doing and received a small smirk.

"Figured this would be more comfortable than the hard ground, yeah. Get some sleep, Sakura-chan.", Deidara smirked, gently petting her now clean pink hair.

Sakura nodded and shut her eyes, burying her face into the crook on the blonds neck and allowing herself to drift to sleep. For once in her young life, she wasn't afraid to sleep. She wasn't afraid of the nightmares that seemed to haunt her. She wasn't frightened of what sort of torture she would wake up. No, she felt safe in the arms of the man who had saved her. She inhaled deeply, taking in the earthy scent that could only be described as Deidara. After a few more minutes, the pink haired child was out like a light.

* * *

Once Deidara was sure the child was sleeping soundly, he quickly made a few hand signs and closed his eyes, willing his body into a meditative state. He allow his mind the reach out and call for Leader to respond to him. When he felt his mind connect with Leader, he allowed his eyes to open. He stared at the dark hologram across from him and took in the focused glare that his boss was sending him, no doubt wondering why there was a lump firmly pressed against the body of his own holographic form. He knew better than to address his Leader without being spoken to first, so we waited patiently for Pein to speak.

"Was your mission a success, Deidara?", Leader asked, getting straight to the point.

"I've got the files in hand, yeah. There were a few other things that occurred during my mission as well, un.", the blond nodded before gesturing to the body sleeping on him.

"I do not care what sort of women you decide to consort with while away from base, as long as your mission was fulfilled."

"Women? Leader, the body sleeping on me is a kid from the village you sent me to.", Deidara explained, trying not to snap at Leader for insinuating that he slept around while on missions. It wasn't the case at all.

"And why, pray tell, do you have a child sleeping on you?"

"She has the same bloodline limit as me, the tavern owner in the village was on the verge of beating her top death.", Deidara explained.

"And you felt the need to steal the child and bring her with you? What do you intend to do with her?"

"I've never met someone with the same bloodline limit as me. I wasn't planning on getting involved at all but when I realized he was wailing on a defenseless kid, I couldn't help myself. I see some pretty good potential in her and I think with the proper training she could become quite the powerful ninja.", Deidara sighed, he was really hoping that Leader would allow him to continue taking care of Sakura. She was too young to be left out on her own. Especially when she had no way of protecting herself. Hell, she hardly spoke as it was so there was another issue with leaving her alone.

"So you intend to raise the child?"

"I do, yeah.", Deidara nodded.

"If she has as much potential as you claim, bring her back to base with you. I expect you back here with her in a weeks time. What became of the village when you left?"

"I blew that godforsaken village to bits, it was truly a masterpiece if I do say so myself, un.", the blond Bomber smirked.

"Very well. Be back in a weeks time.", Leader ordered before his hologram disappeared from sight.

When Leader's silhouette disappeared from view, Deidara couldn't help the sigh of relief that passed his lips. That conversation had gone a lot better than he had expected it to. He was more than sure that Leader was going to tell him to rid himself of Sakura and to return to base right away, considering it would only take him about a day and a half to reach the base on his bird. He couldn't help but wonder why Leader was being generous and allowing him extra time before heading back to base. He dropped his head and took in the sight of the sleeping child currently using him as a pillow. He couldn't help the small smile that made its way across his lips as he took in her form. When she was awake, she was timid and frightened of most everything around her. But when she slept, she looked so calm and connect. He couldn't help but hope that it was by his doing that she felt so comfortable. After all, the situation he had pretty much stolen her from was in no way a desirable one. Especially for a small child. He made a silent vow that no harm would come to Sakura. Not if he could help it.

Deidara watched the young girl sleep for a few moments longer before his own exhaustion made itself known. He knew that if they wanted to reach the next village tomorrow he would need to get some rest. He slowly wrapped his arms around Sakura, careful not to wake her, and rose to his feet. He made his way over to a nearby tree and slowly lowered himself against it. He quickly made sure that Sakura hadn't woken up from his moving, when he saw that she hadn't even stirred from her slumber, he allowed his eyes to become heavy. He quickly reached out his chakra to make sure they were alone, when he didn't sense any other presences in the area, he allowed sleep to consume him.

* * *

Sakura woke to the sun shining brightly in her eyes. She blearily opened her eyes, blinking several times to wash the sleep from her eyes. She let out a small yawn before snuggling her face back into her savior's shoulder, nuzzling it gently. She froze when she felt a hand drop onto her head. She shying peeked over only to find Deidara smirking at her teasingly. His smirk dropped when he saw the fear in her eyes.

"No need to be scared, yeah. I promised you I wouldn't hurt you.", Deidara soothed, petting Sakura's hair lightly.

"O-okay", she mumbled, hiding her face in his shoulder once more.

Deidara let out a snort of laughter at her antics, the little girl still didn't trust him fully. He supposed he couldn't really blame her, she hadn't known him more than a day after all. He let out a sigh, he'd just have to prove to her that she could trust him. Never before had Deidara cared about someone trusting him, but he supposed if he wanted things to work out back at base, the kid would need to trust him completely. He knew after what she had had to endure in her short life that it wasn't going to be easy. But then again, as an artist, he was always up for a challenge. Even if most of his challenges usually came to the prototypes for his explosives. He supposed he could add gaining Sakura's trust to his list of little challenges. He nudged her lightly with his shoulder to get her attention. When she slowly raised her head to regard him, he short her a small smirk.

"How about we get moving so we can get some food in our stomachs, yeah?", he asked with raised eyebrow.

Sakura nodded shyly, trying not to let on just how hungry she was. Until her stomach decided to ruin that for her and gave an almost animalistic growl. Deidars couldn't help but laugh a little when her face flushed in embarrassment.

"I hear you loud and clear, kiddo. You opposed to flying?", he smirked.

"F-flying?", she stuttered slightly.

"Yeah, as in riding on one of my birds to the village. It'll be a lot quicker and it'll show you what those little mouths on your hands could become capable of, un.", he exlpained, chuckling lightly at her amazed expression.

"I think...I think I'd like to fly..", she whispered, hoping that she was giving him the right answer.

"Awesome, un! I'll show you what real art is, yeah!", he cheered,"But you'll have to get off of me so I can do this, yeah."

Sakura nodded and silently removed herself from the blonds lap. She pulled his large cloak over her body a little tighter so it wouldn't slip off of her tiny frame.

Once Deidara's lap was childless, he raised himself from the ground and gave himself a good stretch, reveling in the feeling of his joints popping back into place. Trees were exactly the most comfortable to sleep against, but neither was slouching forward all night. With one last shrug of his shoulder, he reach a hand into one of the clay pouches on his hip, grabbing a small lump of clay and holding his hand out for Sakura to watch.

Sakura watched in awe as she saw the small lump of clay being drawn into the mouth on Deidara's palm. He explained the entire process in detail, truly taking his time to make sure she understood everything he was doing. He explained that he used the mouth on his palm to chew the clay to make it softer before infusing a small amount of his chakra into it so it would be able to either animate itself or explode, whichever he was intending its use to be. Sakura nodded her head every so often during his explanation, letting him know that she understood everything he was telling her. She was completely absorbed in watching Deidara meld the clay with his chakra, it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen in her short life. She couldn't wait to be able to do that with her own palm mouths. She had grown up being told that she was born out of sin and that she was her 'ailment' were an affront to God, and that she had to be punished. Thus the beatings among other things had begun at a very young age.

Once Deidara had the clay ready to mold, he showed her exactly how to smooth the edges, how to make it into a beautiful work of art. She stared in admiration at the beautiful clay bird that sat in Deidara's hand. She looked at him curiously when he set it on the ground and began walking away from it, gesturing for her to follow him. When they were a short distance away, she watched the blond make a single hand sign and uttering the word ' _katsu'._ The minute the single word passed his lips, she felt a strong aura and head a small pop. Before her was no longer the small clay sculpture, but a bird half the size of a tree staring at her. She stared wide eyed as the creation tilted its head at her. Not knowing what else to do, she spun around and hid behind the the blonds back, shaking slightly. She daringly sent him a small glare when she heard him chuckle at her.

"It won't hurt you, yeah. It's just our ride. Now come on, we're burning daylight, yeah.", he chuckled.

"O-okay.", she whispered, following after Deidara when he started walking towards their transport to the village.

Deidara hooked an arm around Sakura's waist and jumped up onto the back of their ride, trying to ignore the small flinch she gave when he picked her up. He shot her a small look and raised and eyebrow when she just shook her head. Deciding to let it go and play it off as him touching one of her more sensitive bruises, he gestured for her to take a seat anywhere after seating himself by the neck of the bird.

Sakura didn't know if she liked the idea of not having anything to holds onto while they were in flight. She swallowed her nerves and pulled on Deidara's shirt lightly. When he turned his head with a raised eyebrow she gestured to his lap.

"You wanna sit in my lap while we fly, yeah?", he asked skeptically.

"I-I've never flown before. I'm scared.", she mumbled.

With a small sigh, Deidara reached an arm out and lead her in front of him before gently pulling her into his lap. If it made her feel a little less scared of flying and helped him gain her trust, he would allow this. After all, he was pretty much stuck with her, not that he was complaining about it. He felt her tense for a moment before he felt her relax against him. After making sure they were ready to depart and warning her that there would be a small lurch when they took off, he signaled for the bird to take flight. When the bird lurched forward, he felt one of Sakura's hands dig into one of his legs but chose to ignore it. At least she didn't scream in terror. Once they were sailing through the air smoothly, Sakura's grip on his leg went slack and he felt her relax against his chest.

"Say, Sakura-chan.", he called over the wind.

Sakura raised her head in question.

"If I were to offer you a new home, would you accept it?"

The look on her face must have screamed _'don't leave me!'_ because Deidara shook his head at her.

"I'm not leaving you, I was going to take you back to base with me, yeah. If you want me to, un.", he explained.

Sakura relaxed once again before nodding at him, silently telling him that yes, she was totally okay with going with him. Wherever this base place was. She'd ask him later when they reached their next destination.

Deidara smiled softly,"Good, because Leader already said I could bring you back. I'll explain everything to you when we reach the village, un."

Sakura nodded her head before training her eyes on the clouds below them. Never in her short life did she think that she would ever be given the chance at a new life, one that she wasn't the center of senseless violence for something she couldn't control. She silently hoped that maybe now she would be able to learn to defend herself, that she wouldn't have to live in fear anymore. That maybe she could possibly seek revenge on those who had wronged her, even if the blond she was sitting on had been the one to blow up her 'home'.

 _'A new home, a new life, a new family. I don't care what Dei-kun asks me to do. I will do it without question.'_

* * *

 **That actually ended up being a lot longer than I had originally planned. But that really isn't a bad thing, now is it? I'm trying to hold back from speeding everything up, but it's just so hard! I have so many plans for the story and I need to calm down before my carpal tunnel decides to be a dick and a half.**

 **Anyways!**

 **I hope you enjoyed!**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **I will begin writing for this story and Clash more once I have settled into my apartment. I've kind of been neglecting my packing...ooops. Oh well. I couldn't wait to get this chapter up!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	3. Let's Go Home

**Okay so for whatever reason I am on a roll right now and just feel this uncanny need to write. I'm thinking it's because I'm not forced to sit at a desk and type these out anymore, currently spread out on my living room floor and loving it.**

 **I'm happy to say that I'm dedicating this chapter to AlexisHGriffin. They left probably the longest review I've ever received and actually ended up giving me a few ideas. So yeah, you're awesome heh.**

 **Anyways!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

Their journey to the village was made mostly in silence after Deidara asked the young girl if she would want to come back to base with him. He tried not to look surprised when she had nodded her head, agreeing to return to the Akatsuki's base with him. He knew that once they did arrive there that things would certainly become more interesting for the kid. He made her a silent promise, he would not allow any harm to come from her. Even if he had to protect her from his own comrades. He was still questioning why it was that he felt the unnatural need to protect her. After all, he'd only known her for about a day and a half. He wanted to just chalk it up to the fact that he had always wanted a sibling when he was younger. It seemed that that desire had not gone away with age.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the village they were seeking came into sight. Deidara let out a silent sigh of relief. He didn't mind traveling by transport or traveling in general, but with a small child, it made it a little more difficult. It wasn't as if her weight was an issue, far from it in fact. It was the fact that he had to constantly keep an eye on her, making sure she didn't freak out about being so high up again. That, and making sure she didn't slide off his lap and off the bird. The latter was least likely to happen, considering the death grip she seemed to have on his shirt. Not that he minded. He almost found it, dare he say, adorable? He wasn't even aware that such words still existed in his vocabulary. Being a member of the famed Akatsuki had more than diminished such words from his mind. Though being a member of this organization hadn't completely destroyed his freewill as a person, he still didn't have as much freedom as he used to. If he could even consider the life he had as a missing ninja before he had been recruited, no, tricked into joining the Akatsuki. Though he didn't exactly want to subject Sakura to his less than desirable way of life, it was a whole hell of a lot better than the 'life' she had been living back in that village.

Deidara gently shook the sleeping child in his lap from her slumber, trying his best not to spook her. One thing he noticed was that, not only was she really untrusting of people, she was horribly jumpy. Especially if you came in contact with a certain part of her body. Though she seemed to sort of trust him, she always managed to flinch away from his touch every time one of his hands would ghost across her back, stomach, and shoulders. He didn't exactly know why, and part of him questioned if he really even wanted to know. He had seen the horrific way she had been kept back in her village, but the true amount of trauma that had inflicted on the small child was a complete mystery. He almost dreaded the moment they returned to base, knowing that Leader would want her to explain to him in full detail of what she had gone through at the hands of her village. Leader would not show her any sort of sympathy, but he was the sort of man who demanded to know every little detail about his subordinates. He claimed it made it more simple to determine if the people he recruited, though it was a rarity that people were brought into the Akatsuki, would betray him down the line. Though it had only happened once before, before his own time in the organization, it had caused Leader to up his precaustions when it came to bringing new people in. Even if it was just a mere child.

When Sakura didn't respond to his coaxing to wake up the first time, the blond let out a small sigh. If he knew anything about this child, it was that she slept like the dead when she wanted to. He let out a small laugh before bouncing her lightly in his lap, being careful not to grip her shoulders and scare her. He almost cackled with amusement when she groaned loudly in her sleep. He knew she was finally starting to wake up.

"Sakura-chan, It's time to wake up, yeah.", Deidara whispered in her ear, just loud enough to rouse her and for his voice to carry over from the sound of the wind blowing against him.

"Sleepy…", she mumbled groggily, earning a snort of amusement from the blond she was sitting on. She slowly lifted her head from where it was resting on his shoulder, giving him a small, questioning look. She hadn't really meant to fall asleep, but she couldn't help it. Dei-Kun was comfortable and warm. It didn't help that she liked the earthy smell that seemed to waft off of his very being. She let out a small yawn and waited for him to explain what was going on. She knew that they weren't in any danger, she would have been able to at least tell that much.

"We're about to land outside that village I was telling you about, yeah. Once we land, we'll get you something to eat and something other than my cloak to wear, un.", Deidara explained over the wind. When she nodded her head in acceptance to his plans, he steered their bird like transport towards a grassy valley just outside of the village, but far enough away where nobody would be able to see the giant clay bird.

Once the duo reached the grassy valley, Deidara scooted the small child off of his lap before jumping off of his creation. Once his feet touched firmly on the ground, he beckoned for Sakura to jump down, promising that he would catch her. He sensed her hesitation but decided it was better to be patient and let her jump down in her own time. As long as it didn't take her all afternoon, he was willing to wait for her.

Sakura looked down at the ground from her place on the clay bird, not very sure if she felt comfortable jumping down from it. She knew that Deidara would catch her, but it was the drop itself that she was dreading more than anything. Small flashes of memories from her village flew through her mind, causing her body to shake slightly in fear. When Deidara gave her a worried glance from his place in the grass below, she tried to give him a trembling smile. Though to her, it felt like she was frowning more than anything.

"Sakura-Chan, do you want me to pick you up and jump down, yeah?", the blond called up from his place in the grass.

A small flush graced her face, so he figured out that she was scared of jumping. She felt ashamed at her fear, knowing that there wasn't anything she should be afraid of when it came to the blond. He had already gone through the trouble of saving her when he didn't have to, so why in Kami's name would he hurt her now. Especially after she knew that he had killed the man that had been causing her harm when he found her. She shook her head in response to his question, she wanted to get over the fears the plagued her. She wanted to show her Dei-Kun that she could be brave. She bit her bottom lip slightly and stepped closer to the edge of the bird before closing her eyes, letting her body lean forward to fall off of the clay bird. The moment she felt the ground underneath her feet disappear, Sakura bit back a terrified scream. She clenched her eyes closed tighter as she waited for it all to be over. The minute she felt Deidara's strong arms wrap around her body, she allowed herself to relax and opened her eyes.

Deidara watched as Sakura tried to pull herself together silently from her perch on his bird. He knew she was scared, but of what he did not know. When she shook her head at his offer to come up and grab her, he was actually a little impressed. Sure, the drop from the bird wasn't very high up, but Sakura was just a child and with her small stature, it probably seemed like it was a longer drop down than it really was. He watched with rapt attention as she edged her way towards the end of the bird's body, her body hesitating a little when she prepared herself to jump. After another moment, Sakura let her body fall forwards, her eyes clamped firmly shut. The moment her body landed in his arms, Deidara felt her tense slightly before her body relaxed in his grasp.

"Good job, yeah.", he murmured soothingly into her soft, pink tresses.

He really was quite impressed with her at that moment. Whatever fear she had been faced with, she overcame it and did what she needed to do. Though he did not know what had been plaguing her mind at that moment, he was still proud. He made sure to make a mental note to let her know that when they reached the Akatsuki base back in Ame that she would have to tell Leader everything about her past in her village. He seriously hoped that sharing that sort of information with a person she had never met wouldn't scare her off but he didn't have a say in the matter. It wasn't his place to disobey the orders that Leader gave him, but he'd be damned if he left Sakura alone with him. He had made a silent vow to never leave her side if he could help it and he intended to keep his promise to her. Even if she was unaware of said promise. Though he knew that deep down part of his vow to stay by her as she talked to pain was out of his own curiosity as to what had happened to her back in the shit-hole of a village he had all but kidnapped her from. Though technically she had pretty willing to go with him. She could have tried to fight him off when he carried her out of the village, but instead she had all but clung to him as they left. He broke out of his thoughts when he felt a small hand tug of the short sleeve of his shirt. He looked down at Sakura with a raised eyebrow.

"What is it, yeah?", he asked.

"Um…can I get down now?", she whispered.

Deidara mentally slapped himself. While he was stuck in his musing, he had totally forgotten to put the poor girl down. Though he knew that she wasn't all that uncomfortable with his touch, she had been stuck sitting on their transport for a few hours and was probably aching to walk around and stretch her legs. He nodded down at her before gently setting her down on her feet. She gave him a small smile and waited for him to tell her what it was that they were going to be doing next.

"First things first, let's get to the village and find you some clothes, yeah.", Deidara suggested, offering his hand to Sakura to take, he had to fight a small smile when she grabbed his hand without hesitation. In all honesty, he was already starting to feel like a caring older brother. The feeling was truly foreign to him, but it wasn't unpleasant. He really did want to get food first and clothes later but he knew it would be a better idea to get her into some clothes that fit her body first. He wasn't sure he was comfortable with her running around an unknown village with just his cloak wrapped around her body. He made a quick mental note to get it washed once they returned to base. He didn't mind Sakura wearing his cloak, but with her being so small, it was dragging along the path they were walking and it was starting to get pretty dirty. Plus, he wasn't so sure that he liked the thought of his cloak being on her while it was partially stained with the blood of the man he had killed back in her village.

(LINEBREAK!)

Once they reached the village, the only thought going through the blonde's mind was the fact that the village seemed almost barren of inhabitants. He knew he shouldn't be too surprised, this village was out in the boonies, after all. Him and Sakura slowly made their way down the village's main road, stopping every so often when Sakura needed to adjust the cloak that hung off her small figure. After about ten minutes of walking through town, Deidara spotted a promising looking shop to find some clothes for his young companion. He ushered Sakura through the shops entrance, indicating for her to look around for something she wanted to wear. She gave him a small nod before softly tugging on his arm, silently telling him to come with her.

Deidara didn't suppress the small smile that formed on his lips when he felt Sakura tug on his arm, he hadn't planned for her to wander around the shop alone but it was a nice feeling to know that she wanted him with her. He followed her lead as she led him through small racks of clothing that the shop had on hand.

Sakura riffled through the small racks of clothing slowly, trying not to seem too eager at the thought of getting clothes that not only fit her, but clothes that she was allowed to pick out herself. Back in her home village she had not been given such a small pleasure. She was mesmerized by all the different designs and colors that the clothing in the shop had. She didn't know what she wanted to pick, she decided it would probably be less time consuming if she just asked her blond companion for help.

"Dei-kun…?", she asked softly, peeking up at him from under her bangs.

"What is it, Sakura-chan, yeah?", he asked with a raised eyebrow, silently cheering at the use of her cute little nickname for him.

"Um…can you help me pick something out?", she asked, a small blush coating her cheeks.

Deidara let out a small laugh at her request, he'd been watching her every move while she had been going through the racks of clothes. He figured she was having trouble deciding on an outfit but didn't want to intrude and offer to help. He wanted her to ask him for his help instead of jumping right into it. He figured that maybe picking her own clothing was a totally new experience for her, he frowned for a moment as images of her former village flooded through his mind for a quick moment. He mentally shook his head, clearing himself of such ungodly images. He looked down at Sakura and gave her a small nod before joining her in her rifling, determined to find her the perfect outfit.

(LINEBREAK!)

After about ten minutes of searching through rack after rack of clothing, Deidara had finally found her the perfect outfit. He handed the small girl the small bundle of clothing and ushered her towards a small changing tent in the corner of the shop, assuring her that he would be waiting right outside the tent for her. It took a little bit of coaxing but Sakura eventually nodded her head and entered the tent without him.

When Sakura stepped out of the tent, Deidara nodded in satisfaction. Not only did the clothes he had picked fit perfectly, they suited her quite nicely. Gone was his Akatsuki robe, instead she wore an adorable little black zip up shirt with a red cloud printed in the back and wore knee length white shorts. He handed her a pair of sandals to put on her feet so she wouldn't have to walk around barefoot anymore. To top off the whole ensemble, he handed her a small pair of leather gloves to cover up the small mouths on her hands. When she raised her eyebrow in question when she eyes the gloves, he explained.

"You only have to wear them around this village, yeah. Once we leave the village you can take them off, we don't need the people here seeing our blood line limit, they might think we're here to hurt them, yeah. See, I'm wearing them too, yeah.", he explained quietly, showing her his own hands that he had covered with his own pair of leather gloves. Normally he wouldn't care if people saw his hand mouths but this time was different. This time he was here to get what him and his companion needed. He didn't want them to draw any more attention to themselves than absolutely necessary. He let out a small sigh of relief when Sakura seemed to understand his reasoning and slipped the gloves on over her hands, making sure the little mouths on her hands were closed. She really didn't feel like have hand mouths full of leather. Once they were satisfied, Deidara quickly paid the shop owner and the two left the shop, fully intent on getting something in their aching stomachs. In a way, Deidara was dreading the conversation he was going to have with the young girl once they sat down to eat, but it needed to be done. He needed to make sure that she was fully prepared for what lied ahead once they left this village later that day. He offered his hand to Sakura once more and one she grabbed hold of it, the two set off back down the streets of the village, full intending to find something to put in their stomachs. Before they made it too far down the road, Sakura handed Deidara his cloak back, which he promptly stuffed in the pack on his back. Their need to stay low forbade him from putting it back on anyway. There was no point in carrying it around in his hand.

(LINEBREAK)

After a little bit of walking and taking in the quaint little scenery that they passed, in all honesty, there wasn't a whole lot to look at in the village, it mostly consisted of little shops strewn through one main road. Small houses seemed to line the streets behind the main road. All in all, the village was quite drab and there really wasn't much to look at.

Finally, a small dumpling shop came into view and the duo slowly made their way over to it, both suppressing the urge to drool at the delicious smells permeating from the shop. Once they reached the shop, Deidara drew back the overhanging curtain and gestured for Sakura to go in first, following her close behind her once she was under the curtain. He watched her struggle to get up on the stool in front of her for a few moments before taking pity on her and carefully lifting her onto the stool. He pretended he didn't see the cute little blush on embarrassment that painted her cheeks when she was put down. He claimed the stool to her right and the two waited in silence for someone to come and take their orders.

"Sakura-chan, what kind do you want, yeah?", he asked.

"I... I don't know. I've never had dumplings before.", she sighed sadly, looking up at him pleadingly for help.

Deidara nodded., "I'll get you what I'm getting, yeah. Does that work?"

Sakura nodded silently, still embarrassed by the fact that she had no idea what to order.

Deidara nodded back to her and turned to order their food once the owner of the shop came to get their orders. He ordered them both pork dumpling, knowing that they would be easy on Sakura's stomach and would tide her over until they made their way back to the base. He knew Leader had given him a weeks' time to return to base but he figured it would probably be best to just get it done and over with. He really wasn't looking forward to the conversation he was going to have to have with Sakura once their food arrived, but what could he do about it? It would be best to warn her rather than her freak out once they returned.

After a few minutes, their food arrived. Both ate in a comfortable silence, savoring each bite of their food. Before long, their food was gone and Deidara knew that it was time. He turned on his stool to face Sakura and took a deep, calming breath.

"Sakura-chan.", he sighed.

"Y-yes?", she stuttered, turning her body to mimic the position Deidara was in.

"I need to talk to you about something, yeah. Something you need to know before we head back to base, un.", he sighed.

Sakura nodded, waiting for him to continue, her green eyes swimming with curiosity.

Deidara took a deep breath before continuing.

"So, when we get back to base you will have to meet with Leader, yeah. He approved for me to bring you back to base with me but there's something you will have to do when you get there, yeah. You're going to have to tell Leader about everything that village did to you, yeah. You will not be able to hide anything from him and under no circumstances lie to him, un. He'll know if you're lying to him. I know it won't be easy for you to talk about, but it is something you're going to have to do if you want to stay at the base, yeah.", he began, when Sakura's eyes widened a fraction he flinched a little, hoping he wasn't scaring her. He took her silence as his cue to continue.

"After you meet with Leader and tell him everything, he will ultimately determine if you will hold a place within the Akatsuki, yeah. I won't leave you to talk to him on your own, I will express to him that I wish to be in the room when you explain everything, yeah. Is that okay with you, Sakura-chan?", he asked, hoping that she wasn't too scared of having to tell a complete stranger everything about her past life in her village.

"I…. I understand...", she whispered, her body trembling slightly. She knew that eventually she would have to tell Deidara everything, but she didn't think she would have to so soon. After all, she had only been with him for a day and a half, everything was moving so fast. She didn't really know what to think. But if this was something that her Dei-kun needed her to do, she would not argue and would do as he requested. She felt a little bit of reassurance when he told her that he would be in the room with her when she had to explain everything to this Leader person. She knew that it would be hard for her to do but she knew she had a little time to prepare herself.

Deidara let out a sigh of relief, he knew the poor girl was scared out of her wits about having to talk to Leader, a complete stranger, about something she hadn't even told him about. He could see her small body shaking slightly and slowly raised his arms to pull her to him, weary of the places she didn't like being touched. Though it was a bit of an awkward hug, it was a hug nonetheless.

Once they let go of each other, Deidara laid a few a few bills down on the counter and the two left the shop, the blond holding up the curtain once more for Sakura. He didn't know whether he should feel like a gentleman or and older brother. Or both.

The two walked back towards the entrance of the village hand in hand, making their way back towards the transport they had left outside the village in the fields.

It was time to head back to Ame, only a few hours by transport away. He knew he should have given Sakura more time to mentally prepare herself for what was to come but thought it would be better to just get it over with so she could start her training and begin to get over the sins that had been committed against her. When they reached their ride back to Ame, Deidara carefully lifted Sakura into his arms and jumped up onto the transport. Her jumping down from the giant clay bird was one thing, but he knew that there was no way she would be able to get back on it on her own. Once they were both seated comfortably, Deidara sitting between the bird's shoulders and Sakura reclining her his lap, the took to the skies and made their way in the direction of the Village Hidden in the Rain.

(LINEBREAK)

The journey towards the village was made in mostly silence, the only sound that came was the occasional grunt from Deidara and the sound of the wind rushing past their bodies. Both were too lost in their thoughts to form any sort of conversation to pass the time.

Deidara was, to put it simply, worried. He knew that the conversation with Leader would be fine, though a bit scary for his young companion, but he knew that Leader would not harm Sakura in any way. Though most saw Leader as a cold hearted bastard, everybody knew that deep down he wouldn't harm a defenseless child, especially one that had been brought into his organization. No, Deidara was more worried about the other members of the organizations reactions once they caught wind of their being a child within the confines of the base. He didn't think that any of them would physically harm her, but it was the fact that all of them were all known as ruthless criminals and the fact that Sakura was a mere child and probably wasn't any older than six or seven years old. He grunted softly to himself, earning a questioning look from the child in his lap, he just shook his head and returned his gaze to the skies ahead. He felt Sakura shrug and relax against his chest.

Sakura was nervous, more nervous than she probably had ever been in her young life. Sure, she was comforted by the fact that Deidara would be with her every step of the way, but it was the fact that she was delving further into the unknown. Once her talk with Leader was finished, she didn't know what she was to expect next. She didn't know anything about the people Deidara called his comrades, heck, she didn't even know that much about her blond companion. Granted she actually held some kind of trust in Deidara but she didn't know what to expect once all was said and done. She knew that she would be trained by the blond to use the mouths on her palms, but after that, she was clueless. She wanted to become strong for Deidara and she would do everything she had to do to make him proud of her. He had already done so much for her and it was time for her to start repaying the favor. She was silently grateful that the blond had not tried to get her to talk to him during their flight back to Ame, it allowed her to collect her thoughts and mentally prepare herself for the talk she was to have with Leader when they returned. She knew that Leader had given Deidara a week to return to base but was grateful that he decided that they would just head back right away and save themselves the worry from the impending conversation that she was to have.

Sakura broke out of her thoughts when she felt something wet land on her arm. Sakura let out a startled yelp when she felt a familiar cloak being draped over her head, protecting her from the rain. She looked up at Deidara questioningly and received a single nod from the blond. They had arrived, they were in Ame. It was time. Deidara smoothly directed the bird towards land, aiming for a small patch of land just outside of the villages entrance. Once they were safely landed, Deidara jumped from his bird and gestured for the young girl to jump down to him, just as she had done before. This time, Sakura jumped from the bird without hesitation, landing in Deidara's arms firmly. He quickly set her down and grabbed her hand, leading her towards the village, not even bothering to deal with his creation. The rain would dispose of it for him.

(LINEBREAK!)

"You nervous, yeah?", Deidara asked as they entered the village, mentally slapping himself for asking just a stupid question. Of course she was nervous! How couldn't she be?!

"A little…But I'll be okay, because you'll be there with me, Dei-kun.", she responded softly, not taking her eyes off of the road ahead. She was nervous, but she was ready to get this over with more than anything.

Deidara nodded, satisfied with her response. He led her down a series of alleyways and streets, only one destination in mind. After a short while, he and Sakura came upon a large tower-like building. Akatsuki's main base, the Rain village's tower. He lifted his hand in front of the door, the ring on his right index finger glowed lightly before the sound of a door unlocking was heard by the duo. Deidara returned his hand to his side and pushed the door open, ushering Sakura through the door before closing it and sealing it once more.

He led Sakura through a series of narrow hallways, making sure to avoid the common areas and rooms that other organization members would most likely be. He wanted Sakura to have her talk with Leader first before the others were made aware of her presence. He led Sakura towards the top floor of the tower and stopped in front of a large door. He looked down at her, silently asking her if she was ready. He saw her take a deep breath and square her shoulders before nodding, tightening the grip she had on his hand a small fraction. He nodded down at her and raised his hand, knocking on the door. He waited a few moments and once he heard a muffled _'enter.'_ He pushed open the door in front of him, Sakura walking through the doorway with him.

Sakura tried to look around the room Deidara had led her to but found that she couldn't see a thing. There were a few candles strewn throughout the room but there wasn't enough light for her to make out much of anything. She felt a pressure permeating throughout the room and stepped back a fraction, hiding herself partially behind the much taller blonde's legs. She decided right then that she didn't like this room very much. Her thoughts were only made more solid when she heard a man's voice addressing them from across the room.

"This is the child?", the voice asked calmly.

Sakura decided right away that his voice was a bit scary, but stayed silent behind Deidara's legs.

"Yes, Leader. This is Sakura, yeah.", Deidara confirmed, gesturing to the child partially hidden behind his legs.

"Bring her here, we must speak.", Leader ordered sternly.

Deidara nodded his head before urging Sakura to follow him further into the room. Truth be told, this room always gave the blond the creeps, he could only imagine how his pink haired companion felt at the moment. Deidara gestured for Sakura to stop next to him as they reached the middle of the room. Sakura heard a chair scraping against the floor and the sound of footsteps coming closer. She gulped silently, trying to keep her nerves in check.

All of a sudden, the room was drowned in blinding light, no longer was the room eerily dark. Sakura was finally able to make out what the man known as Leader looked like. Truth be told, he looked exactly like she pictured him, save for the piercings in his face. His spiky orange hair reminded her of the sunset, she counted all of the piercings in his ears, noting the bars in his nose, the fang like rings in his lower lip, she found them interesting. She thought his eyes were more interesting though, she tried to count all of the rings around his pupils but constantly lost track, it was almost as if they were moving. She was removed from her assessment of Leader when she noticed that he was standing right in front of her.

"So you are the child Deidara has spoken of?"

"Y-yes, sir.", she stuttered.

"Has he informed you that you will be required to tell me everything of your past?"

"Yes, sir.", she nodded, growing a little more confidant.

"Start from the beginning and leave nothing out.", Leader ordered.

Sakura took a deep breath and looked bravely into Leader's eyes.

And then she began, telling him and Deidara everything.

 **Holy shit! That ended up a lot longer than it was supposed to be. Ten pages, almost 6000 words, good god. I think this is actually one of the longest things I've ever written!**

 **Sakura is officially at the Akatsuki base! Now the fun begins!**

 **The next chapter will contain her life story, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!**

 **You'll notice that I didn't use typical line breaks between scenes, sadly they don't carry over to my phone and it's a pain to try to edit them back in. So this'll have to do for now, sorry!**

 **As always, if you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	4. Storytime

**I don't know why, but this chapter was actually kind of painful for me to write. I'm not used to writing anything too dark or depressing. I'm more of a comedian damn it! Oh well, hopefully I won't disappoint you. Let me know what you think?**

 **Anyway!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow.**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper**

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 _Previously;_

 _All of a sudden, the room was drowned in blinding light, no longer was the room eerily dark. Sakura was finally able to make out what the man known as Leader looked like. Truth be told, he looked exactly like she pictured him, save for the piercings in his face. His spiky orange hair reminded her of the sunset, she counted all of the piercings in his ears, noting the bars in his nose, the fang like rings in his lower lip, she found them interesting. She thought his eyes were more interesting though, she tried to count all of the rings around his pupils but constantly lost track, it was almost as if they were moving. She was removed from her assessment of Leader when she noticed that he was standing right in front of her._

" _So you are the child Deidara has spoken of?"_

" _Y-yes, sir.", she stuttered._

" _Has he informed you that you will be required to tell me everything of your past?"_

" _Yes, sir.", she nodded, growing a little more confidant._

" _Start from the beginning and leave nothing out.", Leader ordered._

 _Sakura took a deep breath and looked bravely into Leader's eyes._

 _And then she began, telling him and Deidara everything._

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"I was born to the village that Dei-kun found me in, I think I was abandoned by my parents when I was littler. When I turned three the mouths on my hands came out, I think the village was scared of them. When I was three, I was living with an older couple in the village, they took care of me. Taught me how to read and write, all sorts of things. They were the only ones that weren't scared of the mouths on my hands, the others told me I was an abom...abomination? I think that's the word they used. What's an abomination, Leader?", Sakura asked quietly, thinking back to the couple that raised her brought good memories to her mind. They had been the only ones that had not turned her away when her bloodline limit had emerged, they had treated the same as they had since they had taken her in.

"An abomination is typically defined as something evil or obscene. Continue.", Pein ordered sternly. Pein never thought that he would actually be interested in the tale that the child was telling. He prided himself on his detached feelings towards humanity, only focusing on the goals he had set for himself and his organization. He returned his attention to Sakura and she nodded and continued with her story.

"The villagers got mad that the people raising me hadn't gotten rid of me once my bloodline limit had appeared and broke into our home one night. They grabbed Granny and Gramps and tied them up in the kitchen. They tired my hands and feet together and made me watch as they killed them. Knife through the head and knife through the heart. There was so much blood.", she whispered, her mind taking her back to the scene she was describing. She could still hear her foster parents cries for mercy, begging the villagers that had broken into their home not to hurt her. She could still feel like sticky feeling of their blood running down her cheeks due to the sprays of blood.

Pein and Deidara watched Sakura closely as she told them her life story up until the fateful day that she had been saved by the blond. Both watched her with rapt attention, one out of curiosity and the other out of worry for her mental stability. Deidara was worried that having to relive the sins that had been brought against Sakura would cause her to close up on him and would make Pein send her away from him. Leader had no use for the weak of mind. Nor did he have use for someone who couldn't handle even the simplest of tasks, even if it was having to relive traumatic experiences.

Sakura shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the scenes she was being forced to relive before continuing. The sooner this was done; the sooner she would never have to speak of these things again. The sooner she could rebuild her life and truly learn to live.

"After they killed the couple that raise me, they took me to the tavern that Dei-kun found me in. I lived in that back room for a long time, four years I think. Cause I'm seven now…", she trailed off. "Anyway, the tavern master made me refer to him as Master. I was not allowed to speak unless spoken to, I was not allowed to make a sound unless ordered to. If I made a sound, punishment came."

"What sort of punishments?", Pein demanded sternly.

"It changed every time I broke the rules, he said he didn't want me getting too comfy with what he was doing to me. Sometimes it would just be a beating, I was grateful when that was all he did to me, sounds bad when I hear myself say that. Sometimes he would bring back his customers and let them do whatever they wanted with me, he would just sell me off to the highest bidder and let them do as they pleased. Sometimes they were nice and would just talk with me. Some were just mean.", Sakura spat bitterly. Never did she think that the more she talked about these things that it would actually become easier to talk about. She plopped herself on the floor and crossed her arms across her chest before continuing.

"Sometimes the men would come in with needles and hold me down, sticking them into my skin. I don't know what was in them but they always made me sick. Like I wanted to throw up but never did. They said it would only get worse if I disrespected them and threw up because of their 'gift'", she spat the word, feeling herself growing more and more detached as she continued. She completely missed the worried look that Deidara had sent her way. He'd never seen her look anything but timid and right now she looked downright pissed in his eyes.

"Continue.", Leader prompted, deeply concerned by the tales she was telling. How this child was still alive and functioning was beyond him. He decided right then that she could become quite the asset with the proper training.

"Let's see, we've covered the murder of the only parents I ever knew, the beatings, the weird needles, what should we go over next I wonder?", Sakura asked sardonically. She raised her eyes to regard the two men in the room, finding it strange that she wasn't the least bit uncomfortable with their presence. She didn't know if it was because she trusted Leader, knowing that she already trusted the blond, or because she just didn't care about what happened to her body anymore. She shrugged it off before continuing.

"I guess the next thing I can go into is the tavern master touching places that I didn't like.", she sighed, this was probably the only part that she didn't want to talk about it. She knew what he had done to her body was wrong and it never failed to make her feel absolutely filthy. She broke out of her thoughts when she felt Deidara's chakra spike from his place next to her, she raised her head to regard him in question.

"That motherfucker did what, yeah?", the blond seethed through clenched teeth. He knew that Sakura's life had not been an easy one at all, but this was the one thing he hoped that he would never have to hear about. Never had he even considered the possibility that that disgusting tavern master would have done such things to such a small child.

"He touched me in places I didn't like. I don't know what it's called but I didn't like it. It makes me feel dirty just talking about it, like I want a bath.", she cringed, not truly understanding why the blond was so angry. She knew what the tavern master had done was wrong, but she didn't know why it was making Deidara this angry.

"He's lucky he's already fucking dead, yeah.", Deidara sneered.

"That is enough Deidara. Sakura, is there anything else you wish to share?", Pein asked. He wasn't going to lie, what had been done to this child was beyond despicable. Though he was in no way a kind man, he would forever frown upon any sort of abuse to be taken against a child. When Deidara had told him about finding the girl he didn't know what he was to expect when they arrived back at base. He knew that the child would one day become a strong comrade to the Akatsuki, but her seemingly drastic personality change that she'd had when talking about her past concerned him greatly. Not only was this child clearly smarter than children her age, she was almost detached from her emotions when she spoke of her past. It was almost as if she had become another person.

"Unless you want every single detail of the torture I was subjected to, that's about it.", she shrugged.

Deidara's eyes widened when he heard those words slip through Sakura's lips. Where had the timid girl he had found in the village gone? It was almost like she had become a completely different person in just a few moments. When she had started her story she had been the timid little girl that he knew, now though, now she was almost cocky and a little detached. Almost as if she was completely void of all emotion. He made a mental note to check into her sudden mood swing as soon as he could.

"No, I think you have shared enough for now. You will return to Deidara's room with him. You will be rooming with him and his partner until further notice.", Leader shook his head, gesturing for them to remove themselves from his office.

"Understood, yeah.", Deidara nodded, holding his hand out to the small child on the floor next to him.

Sakura glanced over to the hand offered to her, she took it firmly and was lifted to her feet. She chanced a look at the blond face, wondering silently why he looked so worried. Wasn't he happy that she was able to stay with him? What was wrong with him? She decided it would probably be easier to ask him rather than questioning it in her head.

"Dei-kun?", she asked softly.

Deidara glanced down at Sakura, it seemed timid Sakura was back. Her mood swings were going to start giving him whiplash if they continued. He shrugged it off for now.

"What is it, yeah?"

"Is…Is something wrong? You look upset.", she asked timidly. She really hoped she wasn't overstepping her bounds or offending him by asking him such a question.

"Nothing's wrong, yeah. Let's get back to my room so you can rest.", he answered softly.

Sakura nodded and the two left the office hand in hand.

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Deidara was lying when he said that nothing was wrong, there was a lot wrong actually. For starters, the random mood swing Sakura had had in Leader's office was a little concerning. Then there was the fact that she didn't seem the acknowledge the fact that she had even had the mood swing. And of course there was the fact that she would be sharing his and Sasori's room. He didn't mind having to share his space with her in the slightest, he was actually relieved that she was going to be so close. It was Sasori that he was worried about. The sadistic puppet master wasn't exactly the easiest man to get along with but he supposed he would have to deal since Leader was the one who ordered Sakura to stay with them.

Deidara let out a sigh as he led Sakura through the hallways of the base, his mind running a mile a minute, trying to figure out just how he was going to explain all of this to Sasori. He and Sasori didn't exactly see eye to eye all the time and now that he was bringing a small child into the mix, he had a feeling that things in the base were either going to get a whole lot better or they were going to get a whole lot worse.

The blond stopped in his track in the hallway when he heard a small tug on the sleeve of his shirt. He turned his head to the side to see what the pink haired child needed. He almost smiled at the sight next to him. Sakura was wobbling back and forth, fighting off sleep. He let out a small chuckle before scooping her into his arms carefully. He noticed that this time she didn't even flinch when he touched her back. Once he was sure Sakura was settled in his arms, he continued his walk down the hallways towards his bedroom.

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Deidara shifted the sleeping girl in his arms so he was able to keep hold of her with one arm. He slowly opened the door to he and Sasori's shared bedroom, completely aware that his partner was indeed in the room. He had been hoping that he would be able to put off introducing Sakura to the other members of the Akatsuki until at least the next day, but it seemed that once again, luck was not on his side. He sighed quietly, knowing that there was no point in trying to avoid the inevitable. It was better to just get this over with as painlessly as possible. He truly hoped that his partner wouldn't be too hard on the poor kid.

"You going to stand there in the doorway all day or are you going to come in and show me your new toy, brat?", Sasori asked in a bored tone from within the room.

Deidara couldn't fight the flinch that passed through his body, so his partner had noticed him. He mentally slapped himself, of course his partner noticed him. He hadn't exactly masked his chakra and Sakura's chakra wasn't masked either. Sasori knew that he had a person with him, but it seemed his partner thought that this 'toy' of his came in the form of a woman. He sighed and walked through the doorway and into his partner's line of sight, revealing himself and the sleeping child in his arms.

"Why do you have a child, brat?", the red head asked, genuinely curious. He himself wasn't a fan of children and he knew that his partner wasn't the biggest fan of them either. He couldn't help but wonder why it was that there was a small, sleeping child tucked comfortably in his blond haired partner's arms.

"This is Sakura, she's already been talked to by Leader, and Leader has ordered that she room with us until further notice, un.", Deidara explained quietly, trying not to wake the sleeping girl.

"And why, pray tell, do you have the child?"

"I found her while out on that solo mission I was sent on, she has the same bloodline limit as me, yeah.", the blond sighed. Well wasn't his partner the talkative one this afternoon. Normally his partner didn't spare him more than two words at a time when they were at the base. And now here they were, actually having a conversation. Granted it was about Sakura, but still. It was a tad weird to the blond bomber.

"Interesting. Keep her on our side of the room.", the puppet master ordered, turning back to the puppet he was working on.

Deidara nodded at his partner's back before turning towards his side of the room, setting Sakura down on his unmade bed. He tucked her into the nest of blankets before sliding onto the floor next to his bed, pulling out a lump of clay from the pouches on his hips.

He figured that if she was going to continue to sleep, he might as well entertain himself for the time being. There was no way he was about to leave his new charge alone in his bedroom with his partner just yet. He knew better than to trust the puppet master alone with her at the moment. The last thing he wanted was for her to wake up in a strange place with a man she'd never seen before.

That, or come back to her in pieces and being made into a puppet.

He couldn't help but shudder at the thought. The blond bomber sighed softly before he began molding the clay in his hands.

' _Maybe I'll make her something she can carry around with her, that way she'll never feel alone again'_

With that thought in mind, he dove into his new project with the perfect idea.

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 **Another chapter complete! I hope it wasn't too disappointing!**

 **Yay! Sasori has been introduced.**

 **I decided that I wasn't going to have Inner Sakura be just a voice in Sakura's head, I thought making her manifest into an outward personality might be a little more fun to write. So I just kind of rolled with it. Hope you enjoyed!**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, follow, and favorite!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	5. What's Art? Did I Break Him?

**I** **'m just going to start this off with a groan, for whatever reason my mind won't stop coming up with these little plot bunnies. I currently have two more stories in the work. My poor hands are going to fall off. It's probably worth it though.**

 **This chapter gave me more trouble than I'd care to admit, but then again, all of my stories have been fighting me as of late. Hopefully my creative juices will come back soon, because I really miss writing for hours on end. But yeah, I'll quit rambling now! Hope this chapter doesn't disappoint. Now then! Onto the usual crap!**

 **Anyways!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 _Previously;_

 _He figured that if she was going to continue to sleep, he might as well entertain himself for the time being. There was no way he was about to leave his new charge alone in his bedroom with his partner just yet. He knew better than to trust the puppet master alone with her at the moment. The last thing he wanted was for her to wake up in a strange place with a man she'd never seen before._

 _That, or come back to her in pieces and being made into a puppet._

 _He couldn't help but shudder at the thought. The blond bomber sighed softly before he began molding the clay in his hands._

' _Maybe I'll make her something she can carry around with her, that way she'll never feel alone again_ _._ _'_

 _With that thought in mind, he dove into his new project with the perfect idea._

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When Sakura awoke, she felt two presences in the room with her. One was familiar, she quickly realized that it was Deidara in the room with her. Who the other chakra signature belonged to was beyond her. She didn't hear the telltale sounds of fighting, so she figured that whoever was in the room meant her no harm, not that she was about to trust whoever this person was so easily. Her mind wandered back to the conversation that she had had with Leader and Deidara earlier that day. She could recall bits and pieces of the whole ordeal, but found that some parts were completely blurred. Almost as if they had been wiped from her mind. She would have to ask about that at a later time. Part of her felt like she really didn't want to know what it was that she had supposedly forgotten.

"You awake, Sakura-Chan, yeah?", Deidara asked, picking his stiff body off the floor by his bed to address her. She had been asleep a lot longer than he had expected her to be. In the time that she had been asleep he had managed to no only sculpt her a miniature figurine to carry around, but had even managed to draw up plans for a few new explosive clay prototypes. He supposed that he shouldn't be too surprised that she had slept so long, spilling her life story had probably taken a lot out of her. Her sudden mood swing was still fresh in his mind, he was determined to look into it further next time she was sleeping.

"I'm awake.", she mumbled groggily. She wondered silently how long she had been asleep. From how stiff the blond in front of her was, she concluded that she had to have been asleep for quite some time.

"How about we go to the kitchen and get a bite, yeah. I'll introduce you to some of the other members while we're there. They won't hurt you, yeah.", the blond suggested, offering Sakura a hand to pull her up from her position on the bed. He knew that she would probably be a little apprehensive about meeting the other members but he knew she would have to do so eventually. He figured that it would probably be best to do it now rather than later. The longer he put off her meeting everybody, the longer it would be before she could start he training.

Sakura nodded and grabbed his hand, sighing softly when he pulled her into a sitting position on the bed. Food sounded heavenly right then but meeting more new people put her a little on edge. She knew that they would not harm her, or at least that's what she had been told. She knew better than to believe everything people said right off the bat, even if the assurance came from Deidara, she was still a little weary about it.

Sakura slid her body off of Deidara's bed, still a little worried about meeting more new people. Part of her was a little excited at the prospect of meeting new friends, but at the same time, the voice in the back of her head was telling her to watch her back. People were not to be trusted too easily. She had easily trusted Deidara and Leader, but the others she should be cautious about. She resisted the urge to shudder when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she knew it was only Deidara but it didn't make the touch any less weird for her. She wasn't used to such gentle touches just yet. It would take quite a bit of getting used to. She supposed that she would have to get over her fear of being touched if she was going to be an use to the blond or Leader.

"You alright, Sakura-Chan? You were spacing out a little, yeah.", Deidara asked, squeezing her shoulder lightly.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine.", she mumbled. She didn't want to tell him about her little inner debate, she didn't want him to think that she was having any second thoughts about joining him at the base, because that wasn't the case at all. Kami only knows where she would be right now without him, hell, she wasn't even sure she would still be alive. She clenched her hands into fists, determination flashing in her jade colored eyes. She didn't want to be afraid anymore, and meeting the other members of the Akatsuki was the first step towards her goal.

"If you say so, yeah. Ready to go?", he asked with a quirked brow. He knew something was bugging her, but he wasn't about to push her to tell him. The last thing he needed was for her to close up on him for good. Or worse, have another one of her odd mood swings.

"I'm ready, Dei-Kun.", she answered softly, looking up to give him a small smile.

Deidara nodded his head down at Sakura, offering her his hand after removing it from her shoulder. She unfurled one of her hands and grasped the offered hand, making sure that the little mouth on her hand was closed. After revealing her hand mouths to him, she had always made sure to make sure the mouths were closed when she held his hand. The last thing she needed was to accidentally bite his own mouth hand if she got scared. That probably wouldn't end well.

"You two are leaving without introductions? Deidara, I must say, you're rudeness astounds me.", Sasori spoke from across the room.

Said blond felt Sakura flinch in his grasp. He had totally forgotten about the redheads presence in the room. It was actually quite easy to forget that the Puppet Master was in the room, the man rarely spoke when he was working on his puppets. Which was the only thing he did when he was holed up in their room. He felt his mouth pull down in a frown, he didn't know what Sakura's reaction to the red haired Puppet Master would be. It seemed he was about to find out too.

"Sasori, Sakura. Sakura, that man over there is Sasori, my partner, yeah.", the blond bomber sighed, pointing from one body to the other.

"Deidara tells me that you have the same blood line limit as himself, is this true, doll?", the red head inquired, raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in her direction.

"Uh-huh, that's right.", she nodded, trying not to look as scared as she felt. She had totally forgotten about the second presence in the room. She mentally berated herself for making such a stupid mistake. She almost felt as if she deserved to be punished for being so foolish. She knew that Deidara would never do such a thing to her though. Sakura knew that when it came to her training, there would be pain involved, she just hoped that this weird Puppet Master guy wouldn't hurt her the minute he'd met her. She decided it was best to just be as polite as possible for the moment.

"Interesting indeed. Now tell me, what is your opinion on art?", the red head asked seriously. The last thing he needed in the shared room was another 'beauty is fleeting enthusiast.

"Art?", Sakura asked, tilting her head to the side in her confusion. She honestly had no idea what in Kami's name the Puppet Master was talking about. What could she say, she was beyond sheltered.

The looks a offense on both Deidara and Sasori's faces spoke volumes. Sakura wasn't sure if she had directly offended them in some way or that the fact that she had no idea what art was was her offense in general.

"You don't know what art is?!", Deidara exclaimed, truly baffled. He knew that the young girl hadn't exactly been able to explore a whole lot in her life, but he had never actually met someone who had no idea what art even was. He would have to remedy that as soon as humanly possible. He swore to himself that he would show her his superior form of art before Sasori could get his grubby, wooden hands on her.

"You disappoint me, brat. How could you not show her the beauties of art, even if your version of art is mediocre at best.", Sasori sniffed. Though he saw his partners version of art to be insignificant, he couldn't help but respect him as an artist. The fact that his new young companion was a complete blank slate on the subject truly did baffle him. He would have thought that the blond brat would have damn near talked her ears off about his view on art.

Apparently he was completely wrong.

"I'm sorry, but did I say something wrong?", Sakura asked with wide eyes.

' _Good Kami she's cute.'_ , Deidara cooed in his mind.

' _Dear Kami, she's so innocent it's adorable.'_ , Sasori thought with a slight eye twitch. He realized his thoughts a moment later and mentally berated himself for thinking such thoughts. He was to have absolutely no connection with this child whatsoever. She was to share the room he and the blond shared, nothing more. He didn't have time to meddle in her affairs. As long as she stayed out of his way, he would do everything in his power to avoid the small pink haired child.

' _But she's adorable!',_ the voice in Sasori's head swooned.

Sasori resisted the urge to cave in his skull by way of bashing his head repeatedly into his work desk. He'd never had such thoughts about anyone and he was not about to allow some random child change that. He had a feeling that things in the Akatsuki's base were going to become a little more interesting in the near future. He couldn't help but be curious about what was to come.

That, and worry about the child's sanity once she became acquainted with Itachi and Kisame. Not that he would ever say such a thing out loud, he had a reputation to keep after all.

Sasori was brought out of his thoughts by the very girl that he was thinking about. Granted she was, in a way, insulting him.

"Dei-Kun? Did I break Sasori?", she asked innocently.

Deidara let out a bark of laughter at his partner's expense,"Not at all, Sakura-Chan, he's just being himself. How about that food now, yeah?"

Sakura nodded her head at the blond before turning and waving at the red head.

"See you later, Sasori! I'm sorry if I broke you!", she said softly, trying not to giggle at the dumbfounded face on the normally blank faced ninja.

Not knowing what else to do in that situation, Sasori just lifted his hand and gave a slight wave in the direction of the odd child. Once the duo left the room, Sasori shook his head and turned back to his work.

' _That...was confusing as hell.'_

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 **Okay, I know this chapter is a lot shorter than they normally are, but I am going to break up Sakura's meetings with the other members into their own chapters. Can you guess who she'll be meeting next, haha! This chapter took me way too long to write, I'm kind of disappointed in myself honestly. Oh well, it's written and up now and that's all that matters, right?!**

 **Anyways!**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	6. Call Me Inner! Mr Fishy?

**So, I** **'ve basically decided that since I have a few ongoing stories up at the moment, I am going to start rotating my updates a little bit. I will be taking a short Hiatus from Heartbroken due to not having Wifi at the moment so I can't grab that half chapter I have written for it. As long as time is permitting, I will hopefully be updating my stories once a week.**

 **I will post the rotation that I will be updating my stories in on my profile, if you are curious about updates, that would be the place to look for answers. If you don't feel like reading down my profile, feel free to message me instead.**

 **Be patient with me, I only have two hands. ;-;**

 **Anyway!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

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 _Previously;_

" _Dei-Kun? Did I break Sasori?", she asked innocently._

 _Deidara let out a bark of laughter at his partner's expense,"Not at all, Sakura-Chan, he's just being himself. How about that food now, yeah?"_

 _Sakura nodded her head at the blond before turning and waving at the red head._

" _See you later, Sasori! I'm sorry if I broke you!", she said softly, trying not to giggle at the dumbfounded face on the normally blank faced ninja._

 _Not knowing what else to do in that situation, Sasori just lifted his hand and gave a slight wave in the direction of the odd child. Once the duo left the room, Sasori shook his head and turned back to his work._

' _That...was confusing as hell.'_

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Deidara and Sakura left their shared room hand in hand, both of them on a strict mission to get some food into their stomachs. At this point, the small pink haired child was sure her stomach was about to start eating itself at any given moment. She was used to being hungry on a regular basis, and the food she had been forced to choke down was atrocious, but the feeling of being hungry was something you never really got used to. They wandered through the halls in silence, the blond allowed her the time to process her meeting with his partner.

Sakura had been in awe at the man she had just met back in the room she shared with the blond. She was sure that a man who was partially a puppet wasn't the weirdest thing she would see during her stay at the base. But with that thought in mind, she couldn't help but wonder what other oddities awaited her when they reached the kitchens. She let silly thoughts pass through her mind. Wondering if maybe she'd meet a beast like man, or maybe a vampire. Maybe even zombies!

She shook her head slightly, knowing that her thoughts were a bit childish. She reminded herself that she was indeed a child and that the thoughts she was having were completely normal. But at the same time, she had never been given the chance to truly live as a normal seven year old girl. She knew that she was going to have a purpose within the organization and she would do everything in her power to live up to the expectations that she was given once she started her training. When she would start said training, she was not sure.

Deidara watched his childlike companion with interest, she seemed like she had all but completely zoned out while they were walking. Her normally timid green eyes had grown dull, almost as if she wasn't entirely there at the moment. Her body seemed to be running almost like it was on some sort of auto pilot. He was sure if he turned her body towards a wall that she would continue walking until she ran into it. Not that he would ever try such a thing. At that point he saw no need to break her out of whatever thoughts she was having at the moment, he would allow her the chance to mull the conversation they had had with his partner back in his room.

He just hoped that she reacted as well to the others as she had to Sasori. Otherwise the fragile balance within the Akatsuki could surely crumble and all hell would break loose.

He never wanted something like that to happen ever again.

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Sakura was broken out of her thoughts when she felt Deidara's hand leave her own and felt it being placed on her shoulder, signaling for her to stop walking. She stopped in her tracks and looked up at him questioningly. Part of her wondered if they had arrived at the kitchens or if he needed to tell her something.

"Sakura-Chan, yeah.", Deidara sighed.

"Yes, Dei-Kun?", she asked, her eyes widening. She couldn't help but hope that she had not done anything to upset him back in their room. She prayed that she hadn't upset him. She didn't think she could take it if she were to anger the one person who had shown her nothing but kindness.

"Do you really not know what art is, yeah?", he asked with a slight grimace.

"I lived most of my life in the backroom of a rundown tavern where I was repeatedly abused, Deidara. How would I know what something such as art was?", she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm and bitterness.

Deidara's eyes widened slightly, it looked like that weird mood swing she had had back in Leader's office decided to rear its head again. He wasn't sure how to deal with a situation like this. So, he did the one thing he could think of.

He bent down and hugged her.

He felt her body stiffen when his body connected to hers, but she did not pull away.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, Sakura-Chan. But I need to know, what's with the weird mood change. You did this when we talked to Leader, un.", he asked quietly, trying not to spook her.

"I guess you could call me her other half. Her true feelings. The emotions she doesn't show. The thing that protected her when the bad people came and hurt her. She's safe with me, she's safe with you. I do not know what to think about that puppet thing back in the room the two of you share.", she scoffed lightly.

"So, you're like a split personality then. A creation of Sakura's imagination to protect her from her abusers and nightmares?", the blond asked, truly confused. He'd heard of people being bipolar and having multiple personalities, but he had never seen something quite like this.

"In a sense, yes. She created me within the depths of her mind to keep the monsters away.", she replied with a nod.

"So she calls you at will then, yeah?", Deidara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In a way, yes. But at the same time, She calls to me when she's scared and doesn't know what else to do, almost as if she doesn't know what to do in a situation. If she is confused and lost, I emerge when she calls.", she shrugged. She understood why the blond was curious, but why he was asking all these questions, she was not sure. Could he truly want to help the child that she had taken as a vessel?

"Did she call you just now? When I asked her about art, yeah?", he sighed sadly. If he had been the one to scare her, he wasn't sure that he would be able to forgive himself for it. His time with the girl had been short, but she was quickly becoming someone precious to him. He'd rather take the pain for her rather than have to see her scared or in pain.

"Yes, she was afraid that she had angered you because she did not know anything about something that you seem to hold precious to your heart.", she replied.

"I wasn't upset or angry, yeah. I was a little surprised but nothing more. I would never even consider hurting Sakura in any way.", he pouted.

"And you're supposed to be the adult, you're pouting the figment of a small child imagination.", she pointed out with a smirk.

"Shush, yeah. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I'm technically not talking to Sakura-Chan, yeah.", he grumbled, resisting the childish urge to stick his tongue out at the girl.

"Just think of me as her Inner Sakura.", she shrugged.

"I suppose that would make it easier to distinguish the two of you.", the blond agreed, letting go of the girl in his arms and standing upright once more.

"She has calmed down now, I will be going now.", she sighed.

"Once more question before you go, yeah."

"What is it?"

"She really doesn't remember anything when you take over? She won't remember this conversation?"

"That was two questions but you are correct. Do not repeat anything that I have told you to her, it would do nothing but upset her and make her try to shut you out.", Inner Sakura ordered.

"You have my word.", the blond promised.

"Until next time then.", she smirked.

And with that, the light seemed to return to Sakura's eyes. She looked up at Deidara curiously, wondering why he was looking at him with such a worried expression. Had she done something weird? Something inside her told her to calm down and to continue walking with the blond. She mentally nodded and reached for his hand, grasping it gently.

"Should we keep going, Dei-Kun?", she grinned.

' _My Sakura is back it seems. She didn't pass out like last time. I'll have to ask Inner about that next time I talk to her, yeah.'_

"Yeah, let's go find ourselves some lunch, un.", he smirked, gripping her hand with his and continued to lead her down the seemingly endless hallways. He couldn't help but replay the last few minutes in his head. Sakura having some sort of self created inner personality was something entirely new to him. He knew he should report it to Leader as soon as he could, but part of him told him to keep it quiet for a little while.

It couldn't hurt to have a little more information of the subject before speaking to Leader about it.

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The duo finally reached the kitchen without further incident, Deidara couldn't have been more grateful for that either. The rest of the walk had been done in silence, which, all honesty, was probably a good thing.

The first thing Deidara did when they entered the kitchen was send out his chakra, searching to see if the kitchen was currently being used by another member of the organization. He felt his eye twitch slightly when he came up with two different chakra signatures. He didn't know whether to be grateful that it was them or if he should scoop the child holding his hand into his arms and flee as quickly as his legs would carry him.

He let out a sigh, Sakura had to meet them. It wasn't something he could avoid forever.

"Deidara, do you intend to stand there all day or are you going to introduce us to your companion. I do not recognize their signature.", Itachi spoke up from his position by the fridge. He poked his head out of its depths for a moment to take in the small form that was partially hidden behind the blond Bombers legs.

"Who's the shrimp?", another voice spoke up from behind Itachi.

Deidara flinched at the sound of Kisame's voice. More than anybody, the blond was most concerned with Sakura meeting the partners that currently inhabited the kitchen. Itachi was just an asshole and he wasn't sure what the elder Uchiha would do to the kid. But more than anything, he was concerned about her take on Kisame.

It wasn't everyday you were greeted with the sight of a seven foot tall blue man.

Deidara would be lying if he said that he hadn't been the least bit terrified of the behemoth of a man when he had first met the man.

Deidara let out a groan, there was no going back now. He reached around his back and guided Sakura out from behind his back.

Looks of shock took over the faces of the usually stoic pair of S-Class criminals in front of him.

' _What? They never seen a child before, yeah?!'_

"This is Sakura, she will be staying here on the base with myself until further notice, yeah.", the blond explained with a sigh.

"Uh, Deidara? When did your pansy ass go off and have a kid?", Kisame asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not her dad, you moron!", Deidara barked, his cheeks flushing at the thought. Even if he had any kids of his own, he wasn't even old enough to have a child as old as Sakura.

' _I'm nineteen damn it! That fish fucker needs to learn a little math, un!'_

"Dei-Kun isn't my daddy, he saved me. That wasn't very nice, Mr. Fishy...", Sakura whispered, her eyes boring into the strange blue man across the room.

"Mr...Fishy?", Kisame spluttered.

Deidara swore he heard Itachi snort with amusement.

"Why don't you explain to us why you thought it would be a good idea to bring a small child to the den of some of the worlds most infamous criminals, Deidara?", Itachi spoke up softly.

"You'll have to ask Sakura if she is okay with me telling you anything about her, yeah. It isn't my story to tell.", the blond shrugged, absently playing with a strand of Sakura's silky pink hair. She had taken to them a lot better than he had initially thought she would. It seemed that she was finally gaining a little more confidence. She hadn't even flinched when Itachi had revealed that they were wanted men, criminals.

"Well, Little Blossom, can Deidara tell us?", Itachi asked softly, finally removing himself from the fridge to regard her politely.

"Everybody will find out eventually anyways, Dei-Kun can tell you.", she mumbled, retreating slowly behind the taller blond. She didn't know what it was about that dark haired man, but he made her a little nervous. Almost as if all he wanted was to grab her. What he wanted to grab her for was beyond her. And she didn't really feel up to finding out at that moment.

Itachi nodded before regarding the blond with a blank expression.

"Well then, let's hear it.", he sighed.

"Am I allowed to hear this?", Kisame grumbled.

"You can hear it, Mr. Fishy. I don't mind.", Sakura sighed from her place behind the blond. She knew that everybody would know eventually and when they did hear, she didn't really want to see the pitying looks that she was more than likely to be given. She didn't want pity, she just wanted to heal and move on.

If that was even an option for her.

Deidara looked over his shoulder, looking down at Sakura. He looked straight into her eyes, silently asking her if she was truly okay with them hearing this. When he received a small nod, signaling for him to go ahead and get it over with, he turned back to his comrades.

"What I am going to tell you isn't the easiest to hear, Sakura is still healing from her ordeal and I will not let anybody hurt her anymore than she's already been hurt, yeah.", Deidara began, eerily calm.

When he received two nods in response, he continued.

And he told them everything.

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 **Whoop! Another chapter down! And with a little bit of a cliffhanger, kinda. Maybe. I don't honestly know, haha.**

 **Sakura met Kisame and Itachi!**

 **Sakura's second personality has been named and introduced into greater detail!**

 **Aww, Deidara was claimed to be a daddy xD**

 **Moving on!**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **Until Next Time!**

 **Next story to be updated will be Clash!**


	7. What's a Period?

**This wasn't as hard to write as I had expected it to be, I was able to knock writing and reviewing this chapter out in just a few hours. A new record for me! Makes me feel all fuzzy and feelsy on the inside. Don't judge me!**

 **This chapter is a bit of an expansion from the last chapter with Itachi and Kisame, but another member will be introduced! Yay!**

 **WhiteQueen1116, you asked for an update and I decided to deliver a little quicker than I had originally planned! This one is for you, dear!**

 **Anyways!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

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 _Previously;_

" _Am I allowed to hear this?", Kisame grumbled._

" _You can hear it, Mr. Fishy. I don't mind.", Sakura sighed from her place behind the blond. She knew that everybody would know eventually and when they did hear, she didn't really want to see the pitying looks that she was more than likely to be given. She didn't want pity, she just wanted to heal and move on._

 _If that was even an option for her._

 _Deidara looked over his shoulder, looking down at Sakura. He looked straight into her eyes, silently asking her if she was truly okay with them hearing this. When he received a small nod, signaling for him to go ahead and get it over with, he turned back to his comrades._

" _What I am going to tell you isn't the easiest to hear, Sakura is still healing from her ordeal and I will not let anybody hurt her any more than she's already been hurt, yeah.", Deidara began, eerily calm._

 _When he received two nods in response, he continued._

 _And he told them everything._

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Time seemed to stop for Itachi and Kisame. They had heard many stories in their time and it was steadily getting harder and harder to surprise them. But after hearing the horrors that the child currently hiding behind their comrade's legs was more than a little surprising. What surprised them more than anything wasn't the fact that she was still alive. No, it was the fact that she could even bring herself to trust the blond bomber. Deidara had made sure not to go into too much detail for Sakura's sake, but he had given them the gist of what she had endured at the hands of her home village.

Sakura had not said anything during Deidara's talk with his comrades. She had stayed silent in her hiding place behind her legs and was more than happy to just sit back and listen. It was a nice change from having to be the one to share her life story with people. Now that her blond friend knew her story in its entirety, she was hoping that when the time came to inform the other members of the organization, he would be the one to tell them. She didn't think that she could bear the thought of having to repeat her story. The times she had had to were enough already.

"Do you understand why she's here with me now, un?", the blond grumbled, reaching a hand around his back to gently pet the child behind his back's hair. He had felt her tremble slightly during his chat with Kisame and Itachi but she had made no move to stop him from continuing. He was pretty damn proud of her at that moment to say the least. She had stuck it out until the end and hadn't even cried. He made a mental note to tell her later how proud he was of her.

"Not really, to be honest. I get that the kid had a hard life, but what does that have to do with her being a member of the Akatsuki?", Kisame asked with a raised eyebrow. The child's story had not been an easy for him to listen to, but then again, his own upbringing back in the Mist had not been the greatest. To become a Genin in the Mist, you were forced to fight and kill your other classmates to move up. He had done it, and in truth, it still haunted him at night.

"Because she has the same bloodline limit as me and I blew up that godforsaken village she was forced to call home, yeah. What was I supposed to do? Just leave her there to suffer more at their hands, un?!", Deidara snapped, he felt Sakura's grip on the back of his cloak tighten. He mentally slapped himself for losing his temper for a moment and tampered his raging emotions down. The last thing he wanted to do right now was scare her. He was pretty sure Inner would chew him a new asshole if he scared her again.

"That is exactly what you should have done. We do not take in strays and the fact that Leader not only allowed you to keep this child, but to bring her to the base is nothing short of surprising.", Itachi droned, he could sense the little girl hiding behind the bombers legs tremble at his words. A part of him was satisfied that she was afraid of him, but another part of him wanted to slap himself for doing such a thing. In a way, the little girl somehow reminded him of his own younger brother.

"I don't need the man who murdered his entire clan and tricked me into joining this damn organization to tell me what I should have done, yeah. You have no right to give me your opinion on this matter, un. Sakura is staying here under Leader and I's protection. If you have an issue with it, take it up with him, yeah.", the blond shot back calmly, he had wanted nothing more than to rip into the Uchiha murderer but he restrained himself for Sakura's sake.

' _Kid's starting to make me go soft, yeah. But she needs me more than anything, so I'll do what I have to do, un."_

Without another word on the subject, Itachi turned gracefully on his heel, his standard issue Akatsuki cloak fluttering around his ankles, and left the kitchen, no longer feeling the need to continue the conversation.

"That was a bit of a low blow, Deidara. Now he's going to be all teenage girl on her first period with me for the next week.", Kisame groaned, running a blue hand through his navy hair. He snuck a glance over at the child that was peeking out from the blonde's cloak. "Whatcha lookin' at kid?"

Sakura flinched back to her position behind Deidara, not sure if she should be worried about the fact that she had been caught staring.

"It's alright, Sakura-Chan, Kisame won't bite you.", Deidara chuckled, reaching his hand back around to try to shuffle her out from her hiding place behind his legs. He felt her shoulders tense for a moment before relaxing. She stepped out from her hiding place and regarded the large blue man on the other side of the room with a curious look.

"Something I can help you with, kid?", Kisame asked with a raised eyebrow. Truthfully, he didn't mind having the kid around. Somehow her presence had calmed the normally energetic and quick-tempered bomber next to her. That in and of itself was a miracle. That, and her presence had stopped his partner and Deidara from trying to kill each other.

Again.

"I… I was just wondering about something you said, Mr. Fishy.", she spoke up shyly, her face reddening with embarrassment. She knew she needed to work on her confidence and if she was going to live in this place with these people then she needed to learn to communicate with her. Deidara had assured her that the blue man would not harm her and she trusted him. So, everything would be okay, right?

"What do you want to know, kid?", Kisame asked with a raised eyebrow, thoroughly amused by her little nickname for him. He had to hand it to her, the kid was shy but she had guts. Most people that compared him to a fish were flayed like one. But he wouldn't harm the kid, he had a feeling that after a little more exposure to the rest of the group and after a little training she would be a force to be reckoned with. Deidara seemed to have faith in the kids' future abilities and Leader approved, so everything would be alright in the end. At least, that's how he saw it.

"I was just wondering…. What's a period?", she asked softly. She hadn't understood what he had meant about his partner acting in such a way, especially since she knew for a fact that he wasn't a girl. She swallowed silently and turned her face so she was looking Kisame straight in the eyes and waited for his answer, completely missing the way Deidara's face had paled at her question.

"Uh, ask Deidara kid. He's going to have to have that conversation with you eventually anyway.", Kisame chuckled nervously. He had been hoping that she was going to ask him why his skin was blue, or if his partner had really killed his entire family, or any other question than that one, really.

"Dei-Kun? What's a period?", she asked innocently, removing her gaze from the former Mist nin and returning her attention to the bomber. She didn't know what her question had to do with herself but now that she knew that it did, she wanted answers more than ever.

"I'll tell you when you're older, Sakura-Chan, you have a while before you need to start worrying about things like that, un.", Deidara replied with a twitch of his eye. He was going to blow Kisame to pieces later, so help him Kami. He had wanted to avoid conversations like this for as long as he could. He hadn't even thought about the fact that he would most likely be the one who had to explain to her the things she would experience as a woman later in life. Granted, he didn't exactly have very much knowledge on these types of things, he was a man after all.

" _A man who gets mistaken as a woman on a regular basis, un. Not my fault I don't look right with short hair, and my long hair keeps me warm in the winter damn it, yeah!",_ he thought grudgingly, absently running a hand through his mid-back length hair.

"Why can't you tell me now, Dei-Kun?", she asked quietly, she knew that she should just let it go but she didn't know why she wasn't able to. She decided silently that if he refused to answer her question a second time, she would let it go for real this time. And maybe ask the puppet man back in their room about it later. She had a feeling that he would probably have no issue answering her questions. But would that be a betrayal to Deidara? She didn't think so.

"Like I said, you won't have to worry about those sorts of things for a long time yet, yeah. I wouldn't worry about it too much right now, Sakura-Chan.", he sighed, really hoping that she would just drop it. He was happy that she was finally comfortable enough to start asking him questions, but these weren't exactly the questions he had in mind. He had been more so hoping for questions retaining to training or art. Not the periods she would face in the future. He sure as hell was not ready to touch that subject any time soon.

"If you say so, Dei-Kun.", she nodded, giving him a small smile. She would drop it for now, but the next time she was alone with his partner, she would try to mosey out an answer from him. Like she had said, she didn't think he would have any issue with telling her. She had gotten a weird vibe from the man, almost like he wasn't completely human. But then again, she had been talking to a seven-foot-tall blue man moments before. A grumble emitting from her stomach broke everyone in the room out of their thoughts, her face paling in embarrassment.

"Let's just get you something to eat now, yeah. Sound good?", Deidara asked hopefully. He was more than a little happy that her need for food had made itself known, now he could avoid any further questioning from the young pinkette. Something he would forever be grateful for.

"I was just about to make some ramen if you two want some too, not like it'll be any extra work. Plus, I kind of want to get to know the kid better if she's here for the long haul.", Kisame offered with a shrug. Contrary to popular belief, Kisame wasn't a total dick to everybody around him. He was a pretty nice guy if you weren't on the receiving end of his Samehada. Not that his enemies needed to know that he was secretly a nice guy.

"If it isn't too much trouble for you, Mr. Fishy.", Sakura grinned. She didn't know what it was about Kisame, but she rather enjoyed his company. She grabbed a fistful of Deidara's cloak, not wanting to stray too far away from him, and waited for him to guide them towards the table. They had been standing in the middle of the kitchen during the entire exchange and she hadn't even spotted a table anywhere near them. She suspected that they ate in a different room.

Sakura was secretly grateful that even though she had grown up living in squalor, she at least knew how to eat and behave like a decent human being. She was used to eating off the floor, but she knew that those days were over for good, Deidara had told her as much. She had been assured that she would never live the way she was forced to in the past ever again. She really didn't know how she could ever thank these people for their kindness. Even if the outside world didn't see them as anything less than people who needed to be destroyed. She refused to ever allow that to happen.

"That'd be great, Kisame. I didn't know what the hell I was going to cook, un.", the blond groaned thankfully. It was a well-known fact throughout the base that the blond was a truly hopeless cook. Ask him to blow up a city, he could do it easily. Ask him to sculpt a monument in honor of Jashin, he could do it, even if he wasn't even a follower of such a religion. But ask him to boil water? He'll burn it and probably destroy the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know you're hopeless in the kitchen, Blondie.", Kisame huffed with amusement. He could still remember the first time he had witnessed the poor bomber attempts at cooking. He was pretty sure he had a scar on his thigh somewhere from the shattered plates that had littered every inch of the kitchen. The bomber was a master at crafting explosions, but somehow at the same time he was a gigantic klutz.

Kisame blamed the long hair in his face.

Deidara blamed the intelligence levels of the inanimate objects known as plates.

"You don't know how to cook, Dei-Kun?", Sakura asked, her surprise evident in her voice. She held such high praises for the man that finding out that he failed at something was a little more than shocking.

"Don't tell me you know how to cook, Sakura-Chan, I'll die of shame.", Deidara groaned pitifully, laying his head on a nearby counter.

"Sometimes at the tavern I was put in the kitchens to cook. I know how to cook, just not a whole lot.", she shrugged.

Kisame and Deidara shared a silent look, it seemed their new comrade was finally starting to come out of her shell. She hadn't stuttered or flinched away after speaking. They were more that impressed at her change in demeanor in the last few minutes. Deidara let out a small sigh of relief, this was the real Sakura. Inner hadn't taken over for her. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he did. And he wasn't about to start questioning it.

"You want to help then, Squirt?", Kisame asked with a raised eyebrow. He figured that if he could teach her a few things in the kitchen, then maybe he wouldn't always be the one stuck cooking the organizations meals. They had tried to get Hidan to cook once, but they never asked again after they were given horrific food poisoning. It had gotten to the point where one of the other members had begged him to be sacrificed to the immortals God of Slaughter. Too bad for said member, the Jashinist had been too sick to even try to do such a thing.

"Are you sure that's okay?", Sakura asked innocently, she really didn't want to get in his way or intrude.

"It's fine kid, you don't have to be so stiff. Calm down a little, we aren't going to hurt you and if anyone tries, I'll hit them with Samehada a few times.", the shark nin shrugged, offering her a hand. He noticed Deidara's smug smirk from behind the pink haired child and resisted the urge to shoot him a rude gesture. The last thing they needed was a seven-year-old girl going around giving people the finger. That would certainly end well.

"In that case, I'd love to help!", she cheered happily, grabbing hold of Kisame's hand. She wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to learn something new, or hone the miniscule skills she already had. She knew that her skills weren't that great but it was better than nothing. And if she was given the offer to help her improve, she wasn't about to pass it up.

Kisame closed his hand around the girl's much smaller one, being careful not to crush it, and led her over to the fridge. They started to pile ingredients onto the countertops and shooed the lingering blond out of the kitchen.

The blond left after making Kisame promise that he wouldn't let Sakura handle the knives, let her touch the boiling water, and anything else that would cause her harm. After suppressing the urge to laugh that how motherly the blond was being, he agreed to his terms.

Once the blond was out of the kitchen and out of the way, the two set to work on preparing lunch. Kisame walked Sakura through every step, letting her do most of the work while he observed. She had confided in him that she wanted to learn everything she could possibly learn from him and he had agreed to help her.

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The smells of freshly made food wafted through the lower level of the base, not one room was spared from its enticing smells. Deidara moaned when his senses were assaulted with the smells of food, even the mouths on his palms were licking their lips at the thought of finally getting some food in his stomach. He had heard Sakura talking to Kisame from his place in the dining room and couldn't have been happier about the fact that she had found some sort of kinship with the former Mist nin. He hadn't been too worried about leaving her alone with him.

It was a few of the other members he was a little more concerned about. But he would just deal with them when the time came for her to meet them. Now there was something he was quite looking forward to.

Sakura and Kisame entered the dining room with three bowls of freshly made ramen in their hands, both smiling like fools. Sakura couldn't wait for Deidara to taste the food that Kisame had helped her make. During her time alone in the kitchens with him, she had grown quickly attached to the man who was easily three times her size. She had come to find out that he only looked and acted intimidating when others were around. He was nothing more than just a giant teddy bear. If she didn't understand how to do something he was teaching her, he would stop her and explain it again and again until she got it. If this was how he was when it came to teaching her cooking, she couldn't wait to start training with him in the near future.

They set the bowls down on the table and took in their seats. Just as they were about to dig into their food, another voice interrupted their meal.

"Who the fuck made the food?! Smells fucking delicious and there had better be some for me, Jashin damn it!"

"Oh, fuck me…", Deidara moaned, banging his head on the kitchen table, careful not to knock over the meal that had been set in front of him.

"Dear Kami here we go…", Kisame groaned.

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 **And there's chapter seven. Can anybody guess who the next person to meet Sakura is? If you can't, well, I don't have any words to describe how disappointed I am haha. I think I made it pretty clear.**

 **How do you think our new introduction is going to react to little old Sakura, yeah?**

 **If you enjoyed please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **Next story to be updated with me Clash!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	8. Are You a Pervert?

**I am beyond sorry for how long it took me to update this story. Life has seriously been hectic and I haven't had a whole lot of time to do much of anything, but for the moment, I am back! I'll smack myself, no need for anyone else to do it haha! Hopefully the wait was worth it and this chapter doesn't disappoint. Hopefully I don't disappoint myself as well. I will try to update a little more frequently now that my life has started to calm down. A lot has happened since my last update but I won't bore you with all the details.**

 **Basically, I found out that there is a chance that in a few years I will go completely blind, yay, right? Totally puts you in a writing mood. And along with that, a person I was quite close to lost her fight with cancer a couple weeks ago. So yeah, I haven't been in much of a writing mood as of late. But I'm here now right?**

 **I'll quit ranting now!**

 **Anyways!**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

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 _Previously;_

 _Sakura and Kisame entered the dining room with three bowls of freshly made ramen in their hands, both smiling like fools. Sakura couldn't wait for Deidara to taste the food that Kisame had helped her make. During her time alone in the kitchens with him, she had grown quickly attached to the man who was easily three times her size. She had come to find out that he only looked and acted intimidating when others were around. He was nothing more than just a giant teddy bear. If she didn't understand how to do something he was teaching her, he would stop her and explain it again and again until she got it. If this was how he was when it came to teaching her how to cook, she couldn't wait to start training with him in the near future._

 _They set the bowls down on the table and took in their seats. Just as they were about to dig into their food, another voice interrupted their meal._

" _Who the fuck made the food?! Smells fucking delicious and there had better be some for me, Jashin damn it!"_

" _Oh, fuck me…", Deidara moaned, banging his head on the kitchen table, careful not to knock over the meal that had been set in front of him._

" _Dear Kami here we go…", Kisame groaned._

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Sakura jumped when she heard the shout outside the dining room and looked up from her food. She took in the looks of displeasure on her two companions faces and gave them a confused look. Whoever was yelling, they weren't too happy to see, she gathered. If the looks on their faces didn't give away their distaste, the way that Deidara's eye was twitching certainly did.

"Fishy, Dei-Kun, what's wrong?", she asked with a tilt of her head. She really hoped that whoever was heading towards the kitchen wouldn't ruin the lunch she was having with the two men. But then again, her and Kisame had made more than enough food so it wasn't like they couldn't feed another person. So far, she was only able to gather that the person yelling was a loud mouth and that he knew the smells of good food when he smelled them. Other than that, she was totally in the dark.

"The idiot yelling is Hidan, he's another member of the organization, yeah. I was really hoping you wouldn't have to meet him right away, he's kind of an asshole, un.", Deidara explain with a wave of his hand. He let out a small sigh, he really hoped that Hidan wouldn't try to sacrifice the poor kid the moment he laid eyes on her. Considering Hidan had tried to sacrifice him during their first meeting, he knew that there was a slight chance that he was going to have to fight off the foul-mouthed priest. He just wanted to eat, damn it!

Apparently, that was way too much to ask. Deidara was starting to think that the Gods hated him for some reason. Well he could think of quite a few reasons that the Gods would hate him, but none that constituted being stuck with an insane silver haired priest. Nobody deserved that sort of punishment. Except maybe that asshole Kakazu, but then again, those two were always trying to kill each other.

Kisame let out a small sigh, he could hear the priest's footsteps coming closer and closer to the dining room. It looked like there was no way they were going to avoid the confrontation they were about to have with the Jashinist. He couldn't help but feel a small amount of relief at the fact that he was at least there to back Deidara up in case the silver haired man decided to go off the deep end and try at the small girl in the room. He just hoped that it wouldn't come to that and that Hidan would have a heart for once and leave the poor kid alone. As long as Sakura didn't do anything to piss Hidan off, he was sure everything would be fine.

Or so he hoped.

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Hidan walked slowly down the hallways of the base, following the scent of freshly made food towards the dining room. It wasn't often that anybody in the base cooked, seeing as most of them couldn't boil water without basically burning down half the base. So, smelling an entire freshly made meal was more than a little weird, not to mention exciting. Not as exciting as making a sacrifice to Jashin, but exciting nonetheless. And he'd be damned if he wasn't going to steal himself a portion.

Even if he had to slaughter the one who made the food to get at it.

He raised a carefully sculpted silver eyebrow when he sensed three different chakra signatures coming from the dining room. It was rare that anybody was seen with anyone but their assigned partner. Most of the other organization members didn't exactly get along the greatest all the time and more likely than not, no more than four people were usually present in the base at a time. This was one of those weird times where everyone in the Akatsuki were gathered in the base together.

He didn't know whether to be excited or concerned about that fact. Nine times out of ten, every time they were all together something dramatic went down. The silver haired Jashinist sometimes forgot that he was a member of an organization, not stuck in middle school all over again. But then again, the dramatic instances were always nothing short of amusing. So, really, it wasn't so bad.

Hidan shook himself out of his awkward thoughts and continued down the halls towards the dining room and kitchen. He recognized two of the chakra signatures as Deidara and Kisame, but the third was a total mystery. He didn't recall them getting a new recruit, and if they had, he hadn't been informed of such. Something about not being told about something so important made his stomach coil with disgust.

He'd just solve the problem on his own.

Kill the newbie for nothing more than being alive.

He really didn't need a reason to kill somebody, innocent or not, but that was beside the point.

With a small sigh, Hidan pushed forward, channeling his chakra to his ears to see if he could make out any of the voices coming from the dining room. He raised his eyebrow in confusion when he didn't hear any of the normal conversations that normally went on between members of the organizations. Instead of talking about past missions and women that they had spent the night with, he heard Kisame and Deidara talking to what sounded like a small girl about future training.

"Why the fuck would anybody bring a kid here?", the priest mumbled to himself. He couldn't find any reason to bring a small child here. Not unless Sasori as about to use her as a test subject, he couldn't help but flinch at the thought. Being immortal did have its downfalls, being the organizations Guinea Pig for experiments was one of them. But he never thought that their Leader would stoop to the level of using a child for such things. Having experienced being experimented on himself, he couldn't fathom the amount of pain the child would endure at the hands of the Puppet Master.

And for some reason, that made his stomach coil with disgust.

"Maybe I'm not as heartless as I thought.", Hidan sighed. He shook his mind free of his thoughts and stopped just outside the dining room. He figured he might as well wait to see how long it took them to notice his presence. It wasn't like he was trying to hide himself away from them anyway.

"Hidan, there's no use in you standing out there, yeah. You might as well come in here so we can get this over with.", Deidara sighed with a roll of his eyes. The minute the Jashinist had gotten close to the dining room, he had immediately focused on the silver haired man. He surprisingly didn't feel any killing intent coming from the older man, which was highly unusual. He blond raised an eyebrow at Hidan when he stepped out of the shadows and into sight. He snuck a peak over at his pink haired companion and noted that her eyes were wide as saucers and her cheeks were slightly flushed.

"Who's the kid?", Hidan asked immediately, he saw no use in beating around the bush. He had come here for food at first, but now he wanted answers more than anything. And Jashin be damned if he didn't get the answers he was seeking.

"Her name is Sakura, Blondie over here brought her back with him from his last mission. She has the same Bloodline Limit as him and he felt the need to bring her back.", Kisame explained, deciding to give the Jashinist the short version of the story. He didn't see the need to spill the poor girl's business with everyone just yet. Especially to Hidan, Kami only knew how he was going to take having a child within their ranks.

"I can tell that there is shit you aren't telling me about the kid. So, is Sasori going to use her for experiments or is she going to be a member?", Hidan asked with a roll of his eyes. He mentally smacked himself for only cursing once in that sentence. Was he seriously trying to watch his language around the kid?

"E-experiments?", Sakura spoke up, her voice quivering slightly with fear. Though she had met Sasori, she didn't think he would do anything bad to her, but then again, it wasn't like he was obligated to be nice to her either. A small shiver ran down her spine at the things he could probably do to her if he really wanted to.

"No, you ass, he isn't going to do anything dastardly to her, yeah.", Deidara snapped, immediately taking notice of the fear present in his new ward's eyes. He knew his partner could be sadistic as all hell, but he doubted he would do anything to the defenseless child. But then again, his partner was known to make his human puppets out of children as well as adults.

He'd have to have a little chat with his partner next time he was alone with the red-head.

"Um, Dei-kun?", Sakura spoke up, she never took her eyes off of the new member in front of her.

"What is it, Sakura-chan?", the blond responded with a raised eyebrow, he prayed to Kami that the next words out of her mouth wouldn't do anything to piss off the loud mouthed priest in the room. He made sure to keep his eyes on Hidan as well, lest she did something to piss him off. He could tell that Kisame was feeling the same way, he could saw the blue man tense the moment the pink haired child had spoken up.

"Why is this strange man walking around half naked?", she asked innocently, pointing at the silver haired mans bare chest.

Time seemed to stop.

Nobody removed their gazes from Hidan, trying to gauge his reaction to her innocent question.

When they didn't see any sort of reaction from him, Deidara and Kisame tensed, hoping that the rowdy Jashinist wasn't about to attack their adorable little ward. Leader probably wouldn't appreciate it either, but he wasn't there to stop whatever was about to happen.

"Are you some kind of pervert, sir?", Sakura piped up again, she noticed Deidara tense beside her but thought nothing of it.

"I'm not a pervert, no. And I'm not wearing a shirt because they get in the same when I'm doing my rituals.", Hidan answered with a raised eyebrow, mentally slapping himself once again for not cursing in front of her. He mentally berated himself for acting soft in front of a mere child. He had pride dammit, why wasn't he cursing at her or threatening her?! And what was with her calling him 'sir', he wasn't that old dammit! His pride was taking a serious beating from a seven year old.

"What's a ritual though?", she asked, her eyes shining interest.

"I don't think Blondie over there would like it if I told you that, Pinky.", Hidan replied thrusting his thumb in the direction of said blond.

"Damn right you don't need to tell her what you do in those twisted ass rituals of yours.", Deidara grumbled, resting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. The last thing she needed to know was that Hidan's rituals included murder and torture.

"Oh, it must be a big secret if you don't want me to know about it. That's okay, Hidan-kun. I won't pry. But can you tell me when I'm older?", she asked, her eyes pleading.

"Uh, yeah, sure thing, kid.", Hidan stuttered. He hadn't expected the kid to be so accepting of that. Didn't kids usually whine when they didn't get their way?

"Looks like she's got you all figured out, eh, Hidan?", Kisame snorted. He had always gotten along with the silver haired priest well enough, but nothing would have saved him from the wrath of a rabid Mad Bomber if he had touched even a single hair on Sakura's head. Though she was quite new to the base, it seemed that the young girl had wormed her way straight into the blondes heart and was there to stay. Kisame couldn't deny that he liked the kid too, but he also knew that the Akatsuki wasn't really a good place for a child. Then again, his partner, Itachi, had come to the organization at a young age too. But there was a lot more to it than just being brought it than being raised there by another member.

Kisame may have been a man with absolutely no paternal instinct whatsoever, but even he knew that raising a child with a bunch of S-class criminals as guardians probably didn't make for a great upbringing. But then again, if he looked at it from Leader's point of view, she could be turned into the ultimate weapon. And that wasn't something he wanted for the young girl, she had been through enough as it was. He didn't want her to be subjected to murdering people or torturing people. He made a silent vow to protect that child from everything that he could.

Little did he know, that Hidan was in the process of making the same vow, or that Deidara had already much that vow to the small pink haired child.

"So, um, can we eat now? I'm hungry.", Sakura spoke up with a pout, breaking all three men out of their thoughts. They all nodded at her and all four of them sat down at the table, more than ready to enjoy the meal that Kisame and Sakura had prepared for them. Both delighted that they had made more than enough food to feed all four of them, plus it didn't taste too bad either.

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 **I'm sad to say that I am a little disappointed in this chapter. I know Hidan is a quite OOC but I kind of like to entertain the idea that he would be protective of any small child that ended up in the organization. I hope you enjoyed and again I AM SO SORRY that this took so long to get out. Adult life and reality is a bitch, yeah?**

 **Again, if you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **Until Next Time!**

 **Tiny little question for those who enjoy my work, what are your thoughts on of an Akatsuki x Sakura pirate AU? Let me know, I've been playing with the idea for some time and wonder if it's worth looking into!**


	9. Towards the Future

**I can hardly believe how easy this chapter was to write and how long it ended up getting. This is by far one of the longest chapters I have ever written and I'm pretty happy with it, if I do say so myself. Hopefully everybody enjoyed it just as much I enjoyed writing it!**

 **Anyway!**

 **I do not own Naruto or its characters, just the plot to this story.**

 **If you enjoyed, please leave a review, favorite, and follow!**

 **S Lyubov'yu,**

 **Casper!**

* * *

 _ **Previously;**_

 _Kisame may have been a man with absolutely no paternal instinct whatsoever, but even he knew that raising a child with a bunch of S-class criminals as guardians probably didn't make for a great upbringing. But then again, if he looked at it from Leader's point of view, she could be turned into the ultimate weapon. And that wasn't something he wanted for the young girl, she had been through enough as it was. He didn't want her to be subjected to murdering people or torturing people. He made a silent vow to protect that child from everything that he could._

 _Little did he know, that Hidan was in the process of making the same vow, or that Deidara had already much that vow to the small pink haired child._

 _"So, um, can we eat now? I'm hungry.", Sakura spoke up with a pout, breaking all three men out of their thoughts. They all nodded at her and all four of them sat down at the table, more than ready to enjoy the meal that Kisame and Sakura had prepared for them. Both delighted that they had made more than enough food to feed all four of them, plus it didn't taste too bad either._

* * *

Three weeks had passed since Sakura had met Sasori, Hidan, Kisame, and briefly, Itachi. Since then, she had finally started to come out her shell and began easily interacting with the silver haired priest that she had aptly nicknamed 'Pervy Priest', much to the Jashinist's amusement. Her relationship with Kisame had become something almost close to kinship. When she could not be found glued to Deidara's hip, she could almost always be found sitting on the shoulders of the shark-nin, listening to him tell her stories from his life before he had defected and joined the organization, much to Deidara's displeasure. The last thing the blond wanted was for his young ward to be exposed to the harsh ways of the Mist Village, even if Kisame was censoring them so they would be somewhat appropriate for a seven year old child. When the Bomber had raised a fuss, Hidan of all people had stepped in and told him that she needed to know the ways of the world and what better way to do that then to tell her stories of their home countries, even if their former homes weren't the most pleasant places in the world.

When the time had come, Hidan too started telling her stories of his life in Yuga. He had told her all about the hot springs that littered the entire village and how they had sold themselves short by becoming a tourist attraction rather than the proud ninja village that it had once been. But when she had started to ask about the pendant around his neck and asked him what Jashin-sama was, he refused to tell her. He couldn't bring himself to tell the small child that had wormed her way into the crusty, dried up organ he called a heart that his religion required him to sacrifice living people to his God. After just three weeks of knowing the child, he didn't think he could stand it if she became terrified of becoming one of his sacrifices.

In the three short weeks that Sakura had been with the organization, she had learned that the world was not the sunshine filled place that she had been hoping that it would be. She learned that the world was filled with people that were even worse than the people she had been saved from back in her home village. She had learned that people like that were often overlooked unless there was some sort reward for getting rid of them. Not only was she learning about the real world outside of the tavern that had served as her prison, she was also beginning to learn to read, write, and function as an independent person. She had come a long way since Deidara had saved her from her personal hell, and she didn't think she would ever be able to repay him for the kindness that he had shown her. He had taken it upon himself to teach her to read, write, and become independent. He had even started to show her the uses for the bloodline limit that they shared on their palms.

Even the Bombers partner, Sasori, had taken a small interest in the lessons the small girl was receiving. While Deidara taught her certain subjects, the Puppet Master began teaching her all about the poisons and certain weapons that he used them in. The impatient man had been quite pleased when she had caught on right away and that she was smarter than the average seven year old. Rarely did he have to repeat himself and with his partner's lessons, she was able to take notes on the poisons and the properties they held so he could quiz her on them later on.

While taking a small interest in the girl, Itachi had not been able to bring himself to approach the small pink haired child. Something deep in his soul prevented him from getting close to her, no matter how much he yearned to. Something deep in his soul would relentlessly tell him that he had no right to crave a child's love anymore, not after the sins he had committed against his own younger sibling. He could tell that avoidance of Sakura was hurting the poor girl, the hurt in her green eyes always made his heart clench whenever he would turn away from her. He had resigned himself to watching her lessons from afar and privately asking his partner about her progress. Nobody more than his partner understood his inner turmoils and was more than happy to give him small status updates on the child's lessons. Kisame had tried many time in the past few weeks to convince his partner to just try to get to know the child, but every time, he would refuse. After almost a month of dancing around the child's schedule, Itachi still refused to approach the child.

In the time that Sakura had been with him, Deidara had quickly realized that he rather liked the feeling of being an older brother. He knew that his feelings of brotherly adoration and love came from more than just sharing a bloodline limit. Part of him knew that it was the fact that she needed him just as much as he needed her. She needed a guiding light to make sure that she didn't end up in the situation that he had rescued her from, she needed someone to protect her, and someone to teach her how to defend and protect herself. And while she was not aware, he needed her for her kindness and compassion. He had found during the first week of their lessons that she tended to be more worried about himself rather than her own well-being. He had also found that she had an intense need for human contact, which had resulted in her sleeping in his bed with him, rather than sleeping in her own. He hadn't raised too much of a fuss, after all, she was still only a child. When she got older, she would have to learn to sleep alone, but for now, he would let her do what made her most comfortable.

The only thing he had been dreading for the past week and a half or so was the fact that Leader was going to want to start her training soon. Most children joined the academy's around the ages of seven and eight. She was the perfect age to start the basics, he knew that much. But that didn't stop him from worrying. The last thing he wanted was to see the small child that was attached to him covered in bruises and dried blood, both hers and her sparring partner's from her training. In his eyes, the small girl had suffered enough pain for one lifetime, but he knew that it was not up to him. If she was going to be here, she had to be trained as a ninja and become an asset to the Akatsuki.

He had made her a vow to protect her from the ugliness of the world and he intended to keep it. So, if the time came, he would shoulder all of the burdens that he knew life was going to bring her once her training was completed and she became a full-fledged ninja of the Akatsuki.

Little did he know, her training was about to begin.

* * *

"Sakura-chan,. wake up, yeah. Leader wants to speak with all of us.", Deidara murmured softly, shaking his pink haired sister gently, trying to raise her from her slumber. Since she had become more comfortable around them, she had been sleeping more fitfully, the nightmares had passed within a week of her stay. Deidara had found out that she was quite the cuddly little thing and woke up most mornings with a face full of pink hair and a child using him as a bed rather than sleeping on the mattress. While he always found the display cute, waking up with a mouthful of hair that wasn't his own wasn't always the way he wanted to start his days.

Sakura moaned groggily as her body began to adjust to the world of the living. She peaked open a single jade eye and regarded the blond waking her up. With a groan, she lifted her body into sitting position and looked from the bed and the spot on the floor that Deidara was kneeling on, quirking an eyebrow in question. She had grown used to waking up curled up on his chest, it was rare that she didn't wake up on top of him.

"I rolled you off me this morning when Leader summoned me, yeah. He wants you to get dressed so we can head up to the meeting hall. Looks like he has something to tell all of us. So, get your butt out of bed and go brush your teeth and hair.", Deidara ordered with a teasing smirk, shooing her towards the edge of the bed and towards the bathroom. He couldn't hold back his snort of amusement when she held her palms out at him and proceeded to stick all _three_ of her tongues out at him. He couldn't help but return the action by raising his own palms to her and returning the teasing gesture.

Once Sakura had slid off the bed and dragged herself towards the bathroom they shared with Sasori and heard the door click shut, the blond Bomber let out a small sigh. He had a really bad feeling about what Leader wanted to speak to all of the Akatsuki about. It was rare that he gathered them all in one place and spoke to them all in person, so whatever he had to tell them, it had be important. He could feel it in his gut that whatever they were going to be told by Leader had something to do with the girl he had taken in as his sister.

"Worrying about Sakura again, brat?", Sasori spoke up from his work table, not even turning around to regard his partner. Since his partner had brought Sakura back to the base, Sasori had become used to the normally vulgar and feisty blonde's constant worrying about the girl. He too, shared some of his concerns, but he was better at hiding them than his partner. He knew that Sakura was more than likely going to begin her training and he had accepted that fact. It seemed that his partner had not accepted that fact quite yet.

"Of course I'm worrying about her! She's only a child and the closest thing I have to family! I don't want to see her hurt ever again, yeah. You didn't see the shitty place that she was locked away in. You didn't have to see the torture she had to endure. You didn't have to scrub the blood and dirt from every strand of her hair, every inch of her skin, yeah. You got to see her after I took care of all that, yeah. I don't want to have to see even a speck of blood on her again.", Deidara confided in his partner with a sigh. The images of Sakura being battered, bruised, bloody, and terrified would forever haunt him. No matter how hard he had tried to forget, he couldn't bring himself to truly do such a thing. Sakura depended on him and needed him to be strong, so that's what he had been doing. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt him deep down inside.

"You knew that this day would come, even if it is earlier than you had expected. But you know that, in the end, that her training with us is the best course of action. She needs to know how to defend and protect herself and those she cares about. Do you honestly think that she would be able to forgive herself if you or anyone else was harmed because they were protecting her and she had no way to help? Once she is told that her training is to begin, she is going to look to you for support more than anyone else. Sure, she will ask us for our advice, but she will look to you for praise and assurance.", Sasori explained, setting his tools down on the table before turning to look at his partner. He too was worried about what her training would entail, but he knew that in the end, it would be for the best. Before Sakura had come to the base, he had been completely emotionless and silent, preferring the company of his own thoughts. But since the small girl had come into their lives, Sasori had seen a change in himself, he was more open, more talkative, and even a little more patient. Especially when it came to Sakura.

"You think I don't know that, yeah?! I just don't want to see her to see how truly disgusting most people are deep down, how cruel the entire world really is! I just want her to be happy, dammit!", Deidara snapped back, his jaw clenching in frustration. He didn't even notice that the door to the bathroom had clicked open and that Sakura had been listening to his short conversation with his partner. His head snapped up to look at her when he heard her speak.

"I know you are worried about me, Dei-kun, but this is something you know I have to do. We aren't even sure that my training is the reason that Leader is gathering everybody together. Saso-kun has a point, I would never forgive myself if something were to happen to you and the others while protecting me. I don't think I could take it if I were to lose any of you because I was unable to help you. So, let's go see Leader together to see what he needs from us. Once my training really does start, I want my big brother's there every step of the way, okay?", Sakura said softly with a small smile, she made her way across the room and held a small hand out to her big brother, waiting silently for him to grab it.

Deidara and Sasori were both stunned, sure, she had become more vocal in the last three weeks, but she never spoke that much in one sitting. Her answers had always been limited to one or two word answers or a sentence at most. Never before had she given a speech like the one she had just given to the male she had taken as her brother. Deidara couldn't help but smile at her and reached out to take her hand. Once she had his hand in hers, she dragged him over towards Sasori and held her other hand out to him, gesturing for him to take it too. When the Puppet Master looked at her questioningly, she let out a small giggle before explaining herself.

"I didn't just mean Dei-kun when I said I wanted my brother's there by my side, I meant you too, Saso-kun.", she explained with a small smile.

To say Sasori was stunned would be an understatement, he may have held the small scrap of girl in high regards due to her level of intelligence, but he had never once thought that she would hold him in as high of regard as she did with his partner. He didn't even try to stop the small smile that made its way across his lips at her words. If he were able to, he probably would have flushed with embarrassment at her admission. With a small chuckle, he reached a smooth hand out and grasped her hand in his own, he shot her a small, teasing glare when she licked his palm.

"Little brat.", he teased lightly.

"You don't really mean that, Saso-kun.", she shot back.

"Looks like she's got you all figured out, Sasori, yeah.", Deidara pointed out with a grin.

"Oh, shut up. We best head up to the meeting hall, I doubt Leader will be happy if we keep him waiting.", Sasori sighed before pulling Sakura towards the door.

* * *

The trio walked the hallways of the base, both males were running on auto pilot at this point, both lost in their own thoughts. Neither one knew what to expect from Leader and they could only hope for the best. They knew that their Leader would not allow any intentional harm to come to Sakura, but they still couldn't help the small amount of nervousness that was invading their senses. Both males sneaked a glance at the young girl holding their hands, neither of them could help the small smile that graced their lips at her small, happy smile. Yes, she had told them that she understood their fears and reservations of becoming a ninja, but she also knew that this was one of the conditions of her being at the base. When Deidara had taken her in, he had told Leader that she had potential and he planned to use her potential and use it to morph her into a capable member of his organization.

When they reached the doors to the meeting hall, Sasori raised his free hand and pushed the door open before leading the other two in behind him. He sat in one of the many recliners in the room and signaled for the other two to find a place to sit. Sakura let go of the Puppet Masters hand and allowed herself to be led away by the blond. He saw in another recliner in the room and didn't argue when she pulled herself into his lap, patiently waiting for the rest of the organization to arrive.

While she waited, Sakura took in the rest of her surroundings, making sure to take note of anything interesting that she saw, or of what little she actually could see. The room was dark, lit only by an expertly array of candles strewn around the room. She couldn't help but think it was neat that some of them were even floating in midair, thankfully away from anything that could catch anything on fire. Other recliners and a couple of leather sofas littered the room, Sakura couldn't help but be amazed that the room was completely different than she had expected. She had expected a large table with standard chairs lining the perimeter. It was completely different from what she had expected, but somehow, this seemed more comfortable and laid back. It was almost calming in a weird way, or maybe it was because she was with her big brother and felt safer.

She wasn't about to start questioning things, she had promised herself that she wouldn't question what Deidara told her or showed her, and she wasn't about to start mentally doing so now. She turned her head towards the door when she heard it click open again and watched as a couple of people she had never seen before stepped into the room, followed by the few familiar faces that she had seen before. She watched Kisame, Hidan, and the man named Itachi take their seats before turning further in Deidara's lap to take in the figures that she had not seen before.

The first person she took note of was by far the strangest man she had ever seen. From what she could tell from the poor lighting in the room was that one side of his body was white as snow, while the other half was black as night. He had yellow eyes that seemed to be staring into her very being as if he was looking for something. She herself had pink hair and wasn't about to wonder why his hair was as green as fresh grass in the spring. The oddest thing she noticed about the man was that he had almost plant-like appendages engulfing his body in a protective manner. Most children probably would have found him scary, but Sakura was different, she thought he was interesting and couldn't wait to find out more about him.

She turned her head and regarded the man wearing an orange and black swirled mask. He was bouncing in after the man with the green hair in an almost childlike manner. She felt Deidara's body cringe beneath her and turned her head to regard him with curiosity, only to shrug when he just shook his head in a manner that clearly said that she really didn't want to know. She just nodded in acceptance and moved onto the next new face.

The next person she saw made her want to shrink back, something about the man put her on edge and she couldn't think of any reason why. The only person in the room that was taller than the man was the man with green hair. His eyes were devoid of pupils and were a swampy green color. Most of his face was obscured by a mask so she was unable to see most of his face. She saw small tendrils of what looked like the thread used for sewing, only thicker, peaking out from the sleeves of his cloak. She shrank back against Deidara's chest and shivered lightly, calming down the moment she felt two strong arms wrap around her protectively.

"I won't let anybody hurt you, Sakura-chan, but you need to calm down, yeah. Everything will be just fine. If any of them try anything, Kisame, Hidan, and Sasori will step in, yeah.", he whispered in her ear. He felt her relax against him but decided it would be best to keep his arms where they were around her tiny body. In this room, it was the only amount of comfort he would be able to offer the small child.

After everybody was seated, Leader entered the room with his partner at his side and regarded each of his members with interest. He scanned the room almost as if he was looking for something, when his eyes landed on the small child huddled in the Mad Bomber's lap, he made his way over to the blond Akatsuki member. He saw the Bomber's arms tighten almost protectively around the small child in his lap and raised an eyebrow in amusement. It seemed that the Bomber had grown a little more than attached to the small child he had brought back to base less than a month ago. He noticed that his partner, Konan, had followed him towards the blond and that she was staring at the pink haired child in his lap with interest. He mentally shook his head before addressing Deidara.

"Has the child now settled in here at the base?", Pein asked smoothly, pointing a red painted finger at Sakura.

"She's settling in fine. Her nightmares are few and far between. She is now able to read, write, cook for herself, and I have started to teach her the basics of the bloodline limit that we share. Sasori, Hidan, and Kisame have been sharing stories about their villages with her to give he an idea of what the outside world really is and that it is not the beautiful and carefree place that most people seem to think that it is.", Deidara explained, gesturing towards the child who sat silently and patiently in his lap. He had to restrain himself from snapping at Leader and telling him that Sakura had a perfectly good name and that it would not kill him to use it. He had told her early on that she was not to speak to Leader unless he had addressed her first. She had easily accepted that fact and had not made a fuss about it, just as he had expected her to.

"So, it has not just been you that has been teaching her about the world?", came the next question from the Akatsuki leader.

"That is correct. During the first few days of her stay she met Kisame, Hidan, and Sasori. She's become quite attached to them and quite enjoys the things tat they teach her about the outside world. Especially since her view of the world isn't the greatest, given her past experiences.", the bomber confirmed, tightening his arms around his sister when he felt her stiffen against him at the mention of her past before coming to the Akatsuki.

"It would seem that she has not gotten past her experiences in the village she came from.", Pein pointed out with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"With all due respect, Leader. Would you truly be able to get over being tortured, beaten, treated like nothing more than a creature that needed to be destroyed for simply existing, drugged, sold for some sick individuals pleasure, and get over several years of torment in less than a month?", Deidara replied slowly, his chakra circling around the child in his lap in a protective manner. He had wished that he hadn't had to say the things he just did, but what else was he supposed to do to make Leader understand just what sort of state she was in. He only hoped that she would forgive him and that Inner wouldn't rip him apart when he got back to their shared room.

The minute he heard Sakura's pained whimper was the exact moment that he felt like the worlds biggest asshole. He could tell by how tense her body was that she was trying as hard as she could not to cry.

Sakura, on the other hand, could taste her own blood on her tongue as she bit her lip hard enough to bleed as she attempted to keep the mental and emotional pain she was feeling at bay. She did not want to appear as weak and feeble in front of the rest of the organization. She understood her brother's reasoning for vaguely explaining the things she had experienced before he had taken her away, but that didn't make them any less painful to hear. She wanted more than anything to forget the sins that she had suffered, but she knew that she would never be able to forget. The small scars on her body would forever be a reminder of what she had gone through.

And what she had survived.

Sakura didn't even dare to look up at Leader, opting to stay as still as possible and wait for him to speak again. Part of her was grateful that she didn't have to wait very long.

"I accept your reasoning. Her training will begin exactly one week from today. Do not disappoint me, Sakura.", Pein nodded towards the small child. He couldn't help but be a little impressed with the little girl. When Deidara had started spouting about her past, he had expected her composure to break and for her to go into a full blown panic attack. Or, in the very least, for her other personality to take charge of the situation. But no, the girl had stuck it out and had held her composure.

"Who will be teaching me, Leader?", Sakura spoke up softly, curiously. She couldn't help but be curious as to who was going to be in charge of her first round of training. She knew that her brothers, Hidan, and Kisame would oversee her training on the side, but she had no idea who would be her actual teacher.

"Since he has the best chakra control of us all and a vast amount of knowledge in most training areas, your teacher for now will be Itachi.", Pein replied, pointing at the dark haired Uchiha seated far away from her. When he received a small nod in return from her, he turned his body towards the rest of the organization and told them everything they needed to know about the small child that the organization was now responsible for. Nobody protested, nobody spoke, they just sat there in silent acceptance.

Sakura could not tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing but chose not to question it. She sneaked a glance at Itachi, trying to read his expression. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that he looked almost uncomfortable with the new situation that he had found himself in. She knew that he had been avoiding her and she had always wanted to know why. Maybe this was her chance to find out why he wouldn't so much as look at her. She couldn't help but hope that she would get some of the answers that she was seeking. On the other hand, she knew that Deidara wouldn't be happy about who her teacher was. It was clear to anybody with eyes that her brother did not get along very well with Itachi. Why, she had no idea. It wasn't her place to ask.

For now, she would just have to calm her brothers concerns and wait another week to start her training.

Itachi on the other hand was lost in his own thoughts, completely blocking out the words that were coming out of Pein's mouth.

 _'How could Leader think that it would be a good idea to have me train Sakura? Had he not noticed that I was avoiding her, as much as it pains me to do so, for a reason?! I guess I don't have a choice, Leader's decisions are absolute and I will carry out my orders. No matter how awkward and uncomfortable that this is going to be...'_

* * *

Once the meeting had come to a close, Deidara scooped Sakura into his arms and dashed from the room and quickly made his way towards the room they shared. His thoughts were running a mile a minute and the only thing he could focus on was getting back to his room and curling himself around his younger sister until he could calm himself down. Normally it would be him calming her down, but at that moment, he needed her more than anything. The moment the door to their room was closed, he flopped onto his bed and curled himself around Sakura.

Thankfully, Sakura seemed to understand her brother's inner turmoils and twisted her body until she was facing him. She gave him a small smile and raised her hands and started to run her finger through his silky, blond tresses in a soothing manner. She giggled softly when she heard his small sigh of content.

"I'm sorry I spilled everything about your past, Sakura-chan. And I'm sorry I kind of kidnapped you after the meeting, yeah. Guess I freaked out a little.", he sighed.

"I understand why you did it, Dei-kun. I don't blame you for being upset. And I don't blame you for saying those things about my past, because they're the truth. I can't dent them and I'm not going to allow them to control my life anymore. I know you are worried about me starting my training but please understand, this is something that I need and want to do. I want to be able to protect those I care about and this is one of the ways I can do that.", she explained, her fingers not once stopping as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"You're too understanding for your own good, you know that?"

"Would you rather I be a brat like Saso-kun seems to think I am?"

"I think I'll pass on that, yeah."

"That's what I thought. I think it's nap time. I've had enough excitement for one afternoon, don't you think?"

"I couldn't agree more, yeah."

And so, the two got into a more comfortable position with Sakura's back cradled against her brothers chest while using one of his arms as a pillow. Within moments, both of them were sound asleep. Neither of them noticing that Sasori had been watching from the doorway the entire time, a small smile on his face at their small display of sibling love. The Puppet Master had been an only child as well and never knew what being a big brother would be like. But after seeing the display between his partner and the little girl who saw him as a brother, he decided that he refused to be outdone. So, he shucked off his cloak and removed his sandals before flopping onto the bed next to Sakura, curling his own body around her too before drifting off to sleep himself.

 _'I don't think this little girl realizes that she's saved us in more ways than we've saved her...'_ , was the last thought that went through Sasori's mind before sleep took over completely.

* * *

 **Thank you again for taking the time to read and enjoy this story! This chapter actually maxed out at almost 6000 words and I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of myself for that!**

 **Training is about to begin for little Sakura!**

 **Will she become a mini Deidara or will she find her gift for healing? Guess you'll just have to wait and see!**

 **Big brother Sasori is a doll, don't you think?**

 **Sakura is already wiggling her three tongues at people, wonder who thought it was a good idea to teach her that?!**

 **Again, if you enjoyed, please leave a favorite, review, and follow!**

 **Until Next Time!**


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